HURRAH  AND  HALLELU  JA1 


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A  DOCUMENTATION  BY  J.  P.  BANG 

■WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

RALPH  CONNOR 


HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


Raison  d'etre 

"The  new-German  spirit  has  found  one 
of  its  most  classical  expressions  in  a  collec- 
tion of  poems  published  by  a  German 
pastor,  Konsistorialrat  Dietrich  Vorwerk, 
under  the  significant  title,  'Hurrah  and 
Hallelujah.'  I  find  in  this  combination 
something  so  absolutely  characteristic  of 
the  German  spirit,  that  I  have  adopted  it 
as  the  title  for  this  book.  In  the  first  edi- 
tion of  Pastor  Vorwerk's  poems  there  oc- 
curred a  paraphrase  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
of  which  I  will  cite  the  last  three  petitions 
and  the  close: 

"Though  the  warrior's  bread  be  scanty, 
do  Thou  work  daily  death  and  tenfold  woe 
unto  the  enemy.  Forgive  in  merciful  long- 
suffering  each  bullet  and  each  blow  which 
misses  its  mark!  Lead  us  not  into  the 
temptation  of  letting  our  wrath  be  too  tame 
in  carrying  out  Thy  divine  judgment!  De- 
liver us  and  our  Ally  from  the  infernal 
Enemy  and  his  servants  on  earth.  Thine  is 
the  kingdom,  the  German  land;  may  we, 
by  aid  of  Thy  steel-clad  hand,  achieve  the 
power  and  the  glory." 

See  page  42. 


HURRAH    AND 
HALLELUJAH 

THE    TEACHING    OF    GERMANY'S    POETS, 
PROPHETS,  PROFESSORS  AND  PREACHERS 

A  DOCUMENTATION 

BY 

J.  P.  BANG,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF   THEOLOGY   AT  THE   UNIVERSITY   OF 
COPENHAGEN 

FROM  THE  DANISH  BY  JESSIE  BROCHNER 
WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

RALPH  CONNOR 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,   191 7, 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


PRINTED   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 


KAK 


I 

I 

INTRODUCTION 

BY  RALPH  CONNOR 

Author  of  "The  Sky  Pilot,"  "The  Doctor;' 
"Corporal  Cameron,"  etc. 

The  revelation  of  the  German  mind,  of  the 
German  soul — I  had  almost  said  of  the  German 
heart,  but  there  is  in  these  Sermons  and  Lectures 
no  sign  of  "heart"  as  we  understand  the  term — 
is  such  as  to  fill  one  with  dismay  if  not  despair. 

These  sermons  are  the  utterances  of  Christian 
ministers  who  may  fairly  be  supposed  to  cherish 
the  most  sacred  beliefs,  the  most  Christian  feel- 
ings, the  holiest  aspirations  to  be  found  among 
their  people.  These  Lectures  are  the  teachings 
of  men  distinguished  for  the  clearest  reasoning, 
the  finest  thinking,  the  most  liberal  culture  in  Ger- 
many during  the  last  quarter-century.  Remem- 
bering this,  one  asks  in  amazement  too  deep  for 
words  what  is  this  strange  madness  which  has 
fallen  upon  a  once  wise  and  kindly  and  great 
people.  One  is  conscious  of  the  same  mingling 
of  horror  and  pain  as  when  a  friend  once  trusted, 
esteemed  and  loved  as  a  type  of  generous  and 
noble  manhood  is  suddenly  revealed  as  a  piti- 
able, unbalanced  creature,  the  victim  of  unclean 
thoughts  and  revolting  habits.     The  shock  is  not 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

simply  that  of  outraged  and  disappointed  friend- 
ship, but  the  more  vital  shock  of  a  weakened  faith 
in  humanity  itself. 

As  I  perused  these  extracts  I  was  pulled  up 
again  and  again  with  the  questions,  "Can  it  be 
possible  that  these  are  genuine?"  "Did  sane  Ger- 
man men  ever  solemnly  give  forth  these  amazing 
ideas  and  sentiments?"  "Or  is  Dr.  Bang  play- 
ing a  huge  hoax  upon  an  ignorant  non-German 
world?"  For  I  protest  that  it  does  seem  as  if, 
seeking  to  ridicule  her,  to  humiliate  her,  to  damn 
her  forever  before  the  world  of  sane  and  thinking 
men,  one  of  Germany's  most  bitter  haters  had 
wickedly  faked  these  extracts  and  attributed  them 
to  these  reverend  and  learned  leaders  of  her  peo- 
ple. It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  these  fantastic, 
these  impassioned  outpourings  of  mind  and  soul 
are  anything  but  ironic.  That  silly,  solemn  self- 
glorification,  that  self-idolatry  with  its  iteration 
so  characteristic  of  a  semi-barbarian  fanaticism — 
how  even  a  slight  sense  of  humour  had  saved 
them ! — that  sense  of  mission,  light  bearing  and 
life  giving,  to  inferior,  frivolous  and  decadent 
non-German  peoples  (cf.  "German  nature  heal- 
ing a  sick  world"),  that  pitiful,  insolent  contempt 
for  all  peoples,  races,  tribes  other  than  them- 
selves, that  crazy  hatred  of  those  they  call  their 
foes,  rising  to  a  frenzied  hysteria  when  directed 
against  England,  and  above  all,  and  sadder  than 
all,  that  blasphemous  monopolising  of  the  Al- 
mighty as  the  German  God,  nay  the  identification 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

of  the  Deity  with  the  German  soul  (cf.  Pastor 
W.  Lehman:  "God  is  nothing  but  our  moral 
activity,  etc."  Read  the  whole  blasphemous  ar- 
chaic definition  of  the  German  tribal  deity) .  How 
pitiful  it  all  is,  how  ghastly,  how  terribly  funny 
were  it  not  so  terribly  sad!  If  Dr.  Bang  seeking 
to  convict  these  German  poets,  prophets,  profes- 
sors and  preachers  of  mental  turgidity,  of  emo- 
tional frenzy,  of  impious  reversion  to  heathenism 
in  religion  and  ethics,  and  using  the  matter  of 
these  Sermons  and  Lectures,  had  put  it  forth  in 
an  original  essay,  the  whole  German  literary  and 
religious  world  would  have  risen  in  wrathful  de- 
nunciation of  him,  and  not  only  the  German  but 
the  rest  of  the  civilised  world  as  well.  We  Anglo- 
Saxons  would  certainly  have  regarded  such  an 
essay  as  a  scandalous  libel.  But  Dr.  Bang  is 
wise.  He  argues  little,  he  mainly  quotes.  Not 
his  argumentation  but  his  documentation  consti- 
tutes this  most  terrific  arraignment  of  Germany 
through  her  intellectual  and  religious  leaders 
which  has  yet  been  put  forth.  Out  of  her  own 
mouth  it  is  that  she  stands  before  the  world  con- 
demned. And  the  tragedy  of  it  all  is  in  this,  that 
these  men  are  sincere,  deeply,  passionately  sin- 
cere. And  herein  consists  the  awful  nemesis  that 
has  after  fifty  years'  pursuit  at  length  overtaken 
the  German  intellect  and  the  German  soul.  For 
the  crime  of  Germany  to-day  of  which  these  Ser- 
mons and  Lectures  convict  her  is  not  hypocrisy; 
but  the  long  practice  of  hypocrisy  has  induced  in 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

her  a  spiritual  blindness  which  has  become  at  once 
her  calamity  and  her  curse. 

In  the  presence  of  this  so  obvious  and  so  strik- 
ing a  phenomenon  one  is  forced  to  enquire  how  it 
is  that,  with  all  our  intimate  fellowship  with  Ger- 
many during  these  last  thirty  or  forty  years  we 
have  failed  to  note  how  widely  German  thinking, 
German  ethic,  and  German  practice  were  depart- 
ing from  the  straight  path  of  sincerity,  righteous- 
ness and  humanity.  This  is  indeed  one  of  those 
psychological  phenomena  that  only  the  event 
makes  clear.  It  was  our  admiration,  our  esteem, 
our  friendship  that  made  us  blind  to  this  sinister 
departure.  We  could  not  because  we  would  not 
see.  And  now  this  nemesis  that  has  fallen  upon 
her! — what  more  terrible  and  more  sad  can  be 
imagined? 

The  reading  of  these  Sermons  should  bring  to 
our  hearts  a  solemn  warning.  Let  us  take  heed 
to  ourselves,  for  it  were  a  fatuous  folly  to  believe 
that  we  or  any  strong  and  prosperous  people  are 
safe  from  such  a  course  of  self-deception,  and 
from  its  so  dreadful  penalty.  It  is  to  the  humble 
in  heart  alone  that  God  who  is  Life  and  Light 
Eternal  reveals  Himself.  "The  proud  He  know- 
eth  afar  off." 

This  intellectual  self-deception,  this  spiritual 
blindness,  this  emotional  degeneration  have  so 
thoroughly  imbued  the  people  of  Germany  that 
one  asks  how  can  sanity,  sincerity  and  sweetness 
return.     One   answer  alone  can  be   given.      De- 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

liberately,  without  passion,  but  with  profound  con- 
viction we  say  it.  Salvation  for  Germany  can 
come  only  by  the  destruction  of  that  which  has 
fed  her  inordinate  self-idolatry,  with  its  train  of 
pride,  envy,  hatred,  contempt.  That  military  ma- 
chine in  which  she  has  gloried  and  in  which  she 
has  trusted  must  be  utterly  smashed.  Success  for 
Germany  in  this  world-war  would  but  confirm  in 
her  that  paranoia  which  now  obsesses  her,  would 
justify  to  her  that  reliance  upon  military  power 
which  is  the  source  of  her  militarism,  would  ap- 
prove to  her  conscience  that  disregard  of  cove- 
nants which  makes  her  at  once  the  terror  and 
the  outlaw  among  the  nations,  and  would  deepen 
in  her  the  conviction  that  Almighty  God  has 
chosen  the  German  people  as  the  one  adequate 
medium  whereby  He  can  manifest  His  glory  to 
the  world.  The  essays  at  the  end  of  this  book 
awaken  in  us  the  belief  that  there  are  many  thou- 
sands of  Germans  to  whom  the  sentiments  and 
ideas  expressed  in  the  former  part  of  this  volume 
are  abhorrent,  and  the  hope  that  after  she  has 
passed  through  the  searching,  cleansing  fires  of 
military  disaster,  purged  from  her  pride,  her  folly, 
her  hatred,  her  impiety,  a  new  Germany  will 
emerge  whose  glory  will  be  manifested  not  in  the 
power  to  destroy,  but  in  the  power  to  bless;  not 
in  the  spirit  of  overmastering  tyranny,  but  in 
Righteousness  which  with  consequent  Peace  and 
Joy  constitute  on  earth  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

February,  19 17. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction  by  Ralph  Connor     ....  v 

CHAPTER 

I    The  Trend  of  German  Thought   .  15 

II     German  Prophets 30 

III  German  War  Poetry 42 

IV  The  War  in  Sermons 57- 

V     H.  Francke 63 

VI    W.  Lehmann 72 

VII     K.  Konig 91 

VIII    J.  Rump 102 

IX    G.  Tolzien  and  His  Colleagues    .      .  121 

X    J.  Lahusen 139 

XI     Speeches  by  German  Professors   .      .  145 

XII    W.  Herrmann    .      .      .      .  '  .     .     .      .  169 

XIII  The  Story  of  Germany's  Passion        .  176 

XIV  F.  W.  Forster 192 

XV    Reflections  in  Conclusion  ....  201 


HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


HURRAH  AND   HALLELUJAH 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT 

THE  present "  terrible  war  has  justly  been 
called  the  greatest  tragedy  but  one  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  There  may  be  some  amongst 
us  who  have  been  gradually  rendered  so  callous 
by  the  apparent  endlessness  and  monotony  of  the 
war  that  it  has  slipped  into  the  background  of 
their  thoughts.  There  are  others,  whom  the  war 
has  so  completely  thrown  out  of  their  usual  bear- 
ings, that  they  cannot  regain  their  balance  of 
mind,  but  must  grapple  over  and  over  again  with 
its  mighty  problems,  suffer  under  its  terrors,  and 
with  hope  and  trembling  await  the  possibilities  of 
the  future.  The  present  writer  belongs  to  the 
latter  class. 

What  will  be  the  end  of  this  terrible  struggle? 
What  will  happen  if  the  one  or  the  other  side 
should  be  victorious?  Is  it  possible  to  remain 
indifferent  with  regard  to  these  questions?  I,  for 
one,  cannot  understand  such  indifference.  It  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  future  of  the  whole 

15 


16       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

world  that  is  at  stake.  Our  own  little  country 
is  one  of  those  whose  future  will  be  the  most  af- 
fected by  the  outcome  of  the  war.  How,  then, 
can  any  Dane  help  listening,  with  nerves  strained 
to  the  utmost,  for  the  footfall  of  the  coming 
time? 

We  Danes  are  a  peace-loving  nation.  We  do 
not  wish  to  be  precipitated  into  war.  There  is 
no  "Chauvinism"  amongst  us.  Those  who  assert 
the  contrary  are  liars.  All  the  same,  we  still 
feel  that  we  are  a  nation.  We  still  wish  to  live 
our  own  national  life  in  freedom  and  independ- 
ence. Yes,  we  claim  it  as  our  natural  right.  But 
we  have  seen  how  this  simple  and  natural  right, 
as  far  as  a  portion  of  the  Danish  people  is  con- 
cerned, has  for  years  been  trodden  under  foot. 
We  see  also  how,  in  other  countries  of  Europe, 
this  simple  and  natural  right  has  been  treated 
with  contempt.  We  see  how,  during  the  war, 
the  mightiest  and  strongest  nation  of  all  has  put 
its  iron  heel  on  one  small  nation  after  the  other, 
and  crushed  them.  This,  together  with  other 
things,  has  caused  me,  and  many  others  with  me, 
to  think  with  despair  of  the  day  of  settlement, 
should  the  final  victory  rest  with  that  Power,  and 
consequently  with  the  spirit  and  the  ideas  which 
are  dominant  in  its  gigantic  struggle. 

With  increasing  admiration,  but  also  with  in- 
creasing terror,  the  world  has  witnessed  Ger- 
many's fight.  With  admiration  for  the  fore- 
thought with  which  even  the  smallest  details  had 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  17 


been  considered,  for  the  order  and  punctuality 
with  which  the  immense  organisation  was  carried 
through,  for  the  enormous  strength  and  the 
daring  initiative  with  which,  during  all  these 
months,  the  fight  has  been  constantly  resumed  on 
new  fronts.  But  also  with  increasing  terror — for 
from  the  first  the  mode  of  warfare  gave  evidence 
of  a  ruthlessness  of  the  possibility  of  which  no 
one  had  ever  dreamt;  and  it  became  more  and 
more  clear  that  the  war  was  carried  on  with  such 
plans  and  ideas  in  view  that  their  realisation  would 
mean  a  mockery  of  all  international  justice. 

The  Allies  have  denounced  the  Germans  as 
barbarians.  If  this  were  meant  to  imply  that 
Germany  was  not  a  civilised  nation  {Kultar na- 
tion) such  an  accusation  would,  of  course,  be  ab- 
surd. Germany  is  unquestionably  a  civilised  na- 
tion, and  none  of  the  spokesmen  of  the  Allied 
Powers  would  think  of  denying  that  she  has  pro- 
duced rich  treasures  of  "Kultur."  Wherever  the 
German  mind  has  laboured,  wonderful  riches 
have  been  the  outcome.  In  the  most  diverse 
domains,  but  especially  in  those  of  music,  of 
literature,  of  science  and  religion,  it  would  be 
easy  to  mention  names  that  shine  with  the  lustre 
of  renown  throughout  the  whole  world.  But  the 
charge  of  barbarism  points  in  an  entirely  different 
direction.  It  points  to  a  development  within  Ger- 
many which  has  been  going  on  with  headlong 
rapidity,  especially  during  the  past  fifty  years; 
and  in  this  connection  the  charge  will  not  be  easy 


18       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

to  disprove.  Even  the  highest  Kultur  can  turn 
to  barbarism  when  it  becomes  subservient  to  ut- 
terly false  and  immoral  ideas.  Any  reference  to 
Germany's  great  Kultur  in  the  past  is  of  no  use 
here.  That  we  acknowledge,  and  from  that  we 
shall  continue  to  learn:  it  can  never  perish.  But 
the  non-German  nations,  especially  Germany's 
neighbours  and  those  who  feel  their  position 
threatened  by  Germany's  increasing  strength  and 
world-power,  must  of  necessity  ask:  to  what  ends 
is  all  this  highly-developed  Kultur  to  be  applied? 
In  Germany,  such  a  craving  for  power,  such  a 
worship  of  mere  strength,  has  taken  root  and 
grown,  that  the  claim  of  right  to  be  the  deter- 
mining factor  in  international  relations  has  been 
entirely  pushed  aside.  A  colossal  and  ever  in- 
creasing self-admiration,  a  belief  in  the  glory  of 
all  things  German,  the  surpassing  merits  of  the 
German  nature  {Wesen),  which  alone  has  the 
right  to  rule  in  the  world,  a  cynical,  brutal  asser- 
tion that  in  relation  to  this  claim  all  existing 
treaties,  all  appeals  to  international  law,  all  con- 
sideration for  the  weaker  peoples,  are  of  no  sig- 
nificance whatever — all  this  we  have  witnessed 
with  shuddering  astonishment.  This  German 
claim  is  to  be  enforced,  of  course  for  the  true  wel- 
fare of  the  world,  but  if  necessary  against  the 
will  of  the  whole  world,  by  the  aid  of  sheer  vio- 
lence. This  is  barbarism  unadorned.  And  in  so 
far  as  these  ideas  govern  German  warfare  and 
German  aspirations  as  to  the  aims  of  the  war,  th^ 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  19 

charge  of  barbarism  is,  as  I  understand  it,  en- 
tirely justified. 

It  is  with  this  tendency  in  Germanism  that  I 
am  now  about  to  deal.  There  are  in  this  con- 
nection facts  to  which  sufficient  attention  has  not 
hitherto  been  directed.  And  precisely  just  now 
(winter  of  19 15)  when  Germany  seems  at  the 
height  of  success,  I  propose  to  supply  this  de- 
ficiency. If  she  had  been  crushed  and  humiliated 
there  would  be  no  occasion  to  do  so.  But  now, 
when  she  seems  to  see  her  great  "peace-aims" 
drawing  nearer,  there  is  every  reason  to  show  to 
what  extent  this  barbaric  trend  of  thought  has 
become  a  ruling  factor  within  the  German  nation. 

I  have  for  long  been  conscious  of  the  existence 
and  rapid  growth  of  this  trend  of  thought,  and 
have  again  and  again  remarked  upon  it.  The  time 
is  long  past  when  it  was  the  pride  of  Germany  to 
be  a  "nation  of  poets  and  thinkers."  A  very  dif- 
ferent characteristic  has  now  manifested  itself,  and 
gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  German  mind:  to 
wit,  the  Prussian  tradition.  It  is  the  Prussian 
spirit,  visibly  centred  in  the  House  of  Hohenzol- 
lern,  with  its  pronounced  craving  for  power,  for 
political  greatness,  which  has  now  permeated  the 
German  people.  Bismarck  created  the  Empire, 
but  his  work  was  only  a  stage  on  the  way  towards 
the  final  goal.  The  goal  is  world-supremacy. 
Every  one  is  now  familiar  with  these  ideas.  Some 
of  their  spokesmen  have  come  into  general  notice, 
especially  Treitschke,  Nietzsche,  and  Bernhardi, 


20       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

in  whose  writings  they  are  plainly  expressed.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  some  have  endeavoured  to 
maintain  that  these  names  can  by  no  means  be  ac- 
cepted as  representative  of  the  German  people 
as  a  whole,  but  only  of  a  small  minority.  This  is, 
in  my  opinion,  a  great  mistake. 

The  German  nation  is  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  thought  of  its  own  greatness.  "Deutschland, 
Deutschland  iiber  alles,  iiber  alles  in  der  Welt" — 
this  sentiment,  in  the  mouth  of  a  German,  no 
longer  means  merely  that,  for  a  German,  Ger- 
many and  all  that  it  connotes  must  be  dearer  than 
all  the  world,  but  that  it  is  absolutely  and  with- 
out comparison  the  greatest  thing  in  existence, 
and  that  nothing  higher  can  be  imagined.  In 
this,  the  fundamental  German  dogma,  lies  the 
whole  trouble ;  for  hence  follows  the  claim  that 
Germanism  is  destined  to  rule  over  the  world  at 
large. 

By  dint  of  force  and  violence,  the  Germans, 
under  Prussian  leadership,  have  made  themselves 
the  world's  strongest  military  nation.  They  have 
accustomed  themselves  to  look  with  a  certain  con- 
tempt upon  their  former  "Dreamer  and  Poet"  ex- 
istence. They  have  thrust  themselves  into  the 
world  of  action,  and  endeavoured  to  provide 
themselves  with  theories  suitable  to  the  occasion. 
He  who  wills  power  must  also  will  the  means, 
and  these  means  are,  above  everything,  "blood 
and  iron."  He  whose  aim  is  world-power,  must 
also  develop  within  himself  a  certain  hardness, 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  21 

even  a  certain  cynical  brutality;  sentimental  hu- 
manitarianism  is  of  no  use  here.  The  will  to  use 
brutal  means  when  expedient — that  is,  when  na- 
tional interests  seem  to  demand  it — has  been  care- 
fully cultivated  during  past  years,  and  has  mani- 
fested itself  in  undisguised  coercion  of  foreign 
nationalities  annexed  to  the  Empire.  We  Danes 
have  ample  experience  of  this. 

But  now  we  come  to  the  most  characteristic 
trait  of  Germanism.  The  consciousness  that  vio- 
lence means  wrong  lurks,  in  spite  of  everything, 
in  the  German  blood.  Even  if  they  have  evolved 
theories  which,  proceeding  on  a  so-called  Dar- 
winian basis,  openly  maintain  that  the  right  of 
the  strongest  is  the  only  right  which  should  pre- 
vail among  nations,  so  that  acts  of  violence  and 
encroachment  on  the  part  of  Germany  are  suffi- 
ciently justified  by  the  bare  fact  that  she  happens 
to  be  the  strongest,  yet,  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
most  Germans  cannot  content  themselves  with 
this.  The  German  people  are,  after  all,  a  moral 
people,  and  want  their  actions  to  rest  upon  a 
moral  basis.  They  must  believe  that  they  have 
a  good  conscience  in  everything  they  undertake; 
and  it  is  here  that  the  aforesaid  fundamental  dog- 
ma asserts  itself,  and  takes  control  of  the  course 
of  German  thought. 

Germany  is  not  only  the  strongest  nation  in 
the  world,  but  is  also  the  nation  which,  without 
comparison,  stands  highest  in  every  respect.  The 
Germans  are  the  people,  the  crown  of  creation. 


22       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

All  moral  virtues  are,  in  the  German,  nothing  but 
his  natural,  inborn  qualities.  All  that  is  noble, 
good  and  beautiful  can  therefore  be  described  as 
German.  It  follows  that  the  German  people  as 
such  cannot  possibly  do  wrong;  it  will  always  be 
preserved  from  wrongdoing  by  its  inmost  nature. 
That  is  why,  for  example,  German  men  of  sci- 
ence can  stand  forth  and  unhesitatingly,  without 
any  argument,  demand  that  it  shall  be  acknowl- 
edged that  the  German  army  and  the  German 
military  authorities  cannot  commit  any  crimes — 
it  is  simply  inconceivable.  Others  may  do  so,  but 
for  Germans  it  is  impossible.  In  this  estimation 
of  Germanism,  which  easily  passes  over  into 
downright  worship,  there  is  of  course  a  large 
foundation  of  sheer  naivete.  But  side  by  side 
with  this  often  thick-skinned  naivete,  so  ludicrous, 
at  times,  to  unprejudiced  observers,  there  is  in 
the  German  nature  a  highly-developed  acuteness. 
It  is  precisely  the  combination  of  these  two  char- 
acteristics, naivete  and  acuteness,  that  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  peculiarities  in  the  soul  of 
the  German  people.  And  by  means  of  this  acute- 
ness, which  very  often,  of  course,  takes  the  form 
of  sophistry,  it  becomes  exceedingly  easy  for  them 
to  prove  to  themselves,  that  what  at  first  sight 
might  appear  like  injustice  and  violence,  will, 
when  more  deeply  considered,  be  found  to  be  pre- 
cisely the  highest  justice. 

Therefore  Germany,  as  Chesterton  among  oth- 
ers has  very  rightly  observed,  lacks  what  he  calls 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  23 

the  idea  of  reciprocity.  The  German  cannot  ap- 
ply to  himself  the  standards  which  he  applies  to 
others.  What  in  others  he  would  denounce  as 
violence  and  injustice  becomes,  in  his  own  case, 
the  highest  morality,  the  most  kindly  considerate- 
ness.  When  another  people  oppresses  a  foreign 
nation — when,  for  instance,  Russia  oppresses  the 
Fins,  or  England  the  Irish — then  it  is  terrible; 
and  if  the  oppressed  happen  to  be  of  German 
race,  it  is  worse  than  ungodly,  and  one  rises  up 
against  it  in  holy  wrath.  But  when  the  Germans 
oppress  the  Poles  or  the  Danes,  then  there  are 
a  thousand  reasons  which  not  only  justify  it,  but 
make  it  a  positive  duty.  Is  not  German  Kultur 
all-superior,  so  that  others  can  only  benefit  by  par- 
ticipating in  it?  Is  not  the  German  Empire  of 
such  immeasurable  worth  that  one  ought  to 
grasp  at  any  means  that  make  for  its  pro- 
tection? Are  not  other  races  of  trifling  value  in 
comparison  with  the  German?  Must  not  Ger- 
many, for  strategic  reasons,  secure  the  supremacy 
over  adjoining  regions?  (If  other  Powers  argued 
in  the  same  way  it  would  awaken  in  Germany  the 
deepest  moral  indignation.)  Is  not  German 
blood  ten  times  more  valuable  than  non-German? 
Is  it  not  a  matter  of  course,  that  what  the  Ger- 
man eagle  has  once  clutched  should  be  kept  for 
ever?  Ought  not  the  German  flag  to  float  over 
the  graves  of  German  soldiers?  (That  there 
may  also  be  French,  Danish,  or  Russian  graves 
is    of   no    importance    in    comparison.)      When, 


24       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

therefore,  Germany  is  involved  in  war,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  of  her  spotless  innocence,  or  of  the 
black  infamy  of  her  foes.  When  the  French 
and  the  English  allow  Mahometan  soldiers  to 
take  the  field  against  the  Germans,  it  is  an  insult 
to  all  morality  and  religion;  but  when  the  Ger- 
mans ally  themselves  with  the  Turks,  it  is  only 
right  and  proper.  Of  course  some  may  occasion- 
ally have  qualms,  but  they  are  always  got  over, 
sometimes  in  the  most  amusing  manner.  Thus, 
when  German  Christians  have  some  misgivings 
about  the  German  nation  entering  into  an  alliance 
with  the  Turks,  it  is,  as  we  shall  see,  mere  child's- 
play  for  a  German  professor  to  prove  that  the 
Turks,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  are  in  fact  un- 
conscious Christians.  Again,  when  the  German 
Chancellor  in  his  celebrated  speech  admitted  that, 
to  be  sure,  it  was  wrong  to  violate  Belgium's  neu- 
trality, the  admission  for  the  moment  caused  the 
Germans  perceptible  discomfort.  The  Chancel- 
lor himself,  indeed,  set  up  a  defence  for  the  wrong 
in  question,  by  declaring  that  necessity  knows  no 
law;  but  this  was  not  enough.  Now,  in  due  time, 
it  has  been  established  that  it  was  Belgium  which 
violated  her  own  neutrality,  so  that  it  became 
Germany's  moral  duty  to  invade  the  country,  etc., 
etc.  That  these  reasonings  are  apt  to  be  at  vari- 
ance with  the  simplest  logic  does  not  seem  to  trou- 
ble German  acuteness  to  any  extent. 

This  German  valuation  of  all  things  German 
leads  to  another  remarkable  consequence,  within 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  25 

the  domain  of  religion.  Here  one  encounters  the 
most  astounding  commixture  of  Germanism  and 
Christianity.  Germanism  is  the  natural  soil  for 
Christianity;  all  Christian  virtues  are  also  Ger- 
man; therefore  Christianity  has  here  reached  its 
highest  development.  Hence  it  follows  that  Ger- 
many must  hold  a  special  place  in  the  thoughts 
of  God,  and  must  be  destined  to  fulfil  a  world- 
embracing  mission.  It  is,  therefore,  a  divine  law 
that  Germany,  more  and  more  victorious,  must 
pursue  her  onward  march  through  the  world. 
Two  thoughts  are  here  at  variance  with  each 
other.  The  one  is  that  a  special  German  national 
religion,  in  harmony  with  the  German  mind, 
should  arise  in  Germany,  elevated  far  above  all 
other  religions,  and  practically  inaccessible  to  oth- 
ers than  Germans.  The  other  idea,  which  is 
probably  the  more  general,  is  that,  just  as  Ger- 
many, in  all  other  domains,  is  to  bless  the  world 
with  the  German  nature  {Wesen),  so  she  is  also 
called  upon  to  be  God's  missionary  amongst  all 
the  peoples  of  the  earth,  who  can  only  profit  by 
adopting  Christianity  in  its  perfected  German 
form.  This  is  why  one  finds,  not  occasionally 
but  constantly,  the  expression  "the  German  God." 
I  have  even  found  a  German  writer,  in  perfect 
seriousness,  beginning  a  prayer  with  the  words 
"O  German  God."  This,  I  maintain,  is  possible 
only  in  Germany.  Even  there  it  is  probably  of- 
fensive to  many  people;  nevertheless,  it  is  but  a 
natural  outcome  of  that  over-estimation  of  Ger- 


26      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

manism  of  which,  doubtless,  most  of  those  on 
whom  the  expression  jars  are  themselves  guilty. 
And  to  all  non-Germans  it  must  of  necessity  be 
manifest,  that  this  mixing  up  of  Germanism  and 
Christianity  means  a  very  serious  perversion  of 
the  Christian  spirit. 

Germany's  adversaries  art  wont  to  attack  Ger- 
man militarism  with  much  vigour.  These  attacks 
are  to  the  Germans  simply  incomprehensible. 
They  answer  that  what  their  adversaries  call  mil- 
itarism is  to  the  Germans  only  a  link  in,  nay,  a 
fundamental  condition  of,  their  entire  Kultur.  For 
the  unique  punctuality  and  accuracy,  the  brilliant 
organisation,  which  is  the  main  cause  of  Ger- 
many's colossal  advance  during  the  last  few  dec- 
ades, rest  to  a  great  extent  upon  that  military  dis- 
cipline in  which  the  whole  nation  is  trained  through 
universal  service.  I  shall  not  here  enlarge  upon 
the  question  of  German  militarism,  and  I  willing- 
ly admit  that  the  German  nation  may  justly  claim 
to  possess  the  aforesaid  virtues.  This,  however, 
does  not  alter  the  fact,  that  what  for  the  Germans 
themselves  is  an  essential  and  much  treasured  part 
of  their  Kultur,  becomes  a  terrible  danger  for 
those  nations  whom  the  Germans  would  like  to 
bless  with  the  fruits  of  the  German  nature 
(Wesen).  Other  people  take  the  view  that  the 
said  virtues  may  be  desirable  enough  in  them- 
selves, but  if,  to  attain  them,  nations  must  be 
pressed  into  such  an  uncompromising  machinery 
of    coercion    as    the    German    bureaucracy,    they 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  27 

would  strenuously  object.  For  however  much  this 
system  may  suit  the  German  nature,  it  does  not 
appeal  to  others,  for  whom  it  would  be  the  great- 
est misfortune  to  have  such  a  system  forced  upon 
them.  This  is  what  the  Germans  do  not  under- 
stand. If  a  thing  is  good  for  the  Germans,  why 
should  it  not  also  be  good  for  other  peoples,  and 
peoples  of  a  lower  grade  to  boot?  I  have  recently 
seen  a  German  statement  to  the  effect  that  all  Tur- 
key needed  was  two  hundred  county-judges  and  a 
thousand  gendarmes.  It  sends  cold  shivers  down 
one's  back  to  read  such  a  remark.  Is  it  not  aston- 
ishing that  this  people,  which  boasts  of  possessing 
an  unequalled  gift  for  grasping  the  spirit  and 
trend  of  thought  of  other  peoples,  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  even  to  maintain  that  they  often  know 
them  better  than  they  know  themselves — is  it  not 
astonishing,  I  say,  that  this  people  cannot  under- 
stand that  for  other  nations  it  would  be  like  a 
deadly  plague  to  have  a  foreign  and  uncongenial 
Kultur,  however  excellent  in  itself,  forced  upon 
them?  And  is  it  not  extraordinary  that  this  na- 
tion, with  its  frankly  astounding  admiration  of 
itself,  can  maintain  that  the  only  respect  in  which 
it  is  behind  other  nations,  is  that  its  national  spirit 
is  not  sufficiently  pronounced! 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  the  Germans  to  under- 
stand why  they  are  not  more  beloved.  They  are 
offended  and  hurt  at  the  aversion  with  which  they 
are  regarded;  they  can  find  no  other  reason  for  it 
than  the  lowest  envy;  they  reproach  the  world  for 


28       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

its  shameful  ingratitude;  all  they  desire  is  to  en- 
rich mankind  with  their  great  gifts  and  their 
unique  Kultur.  Other  people  can  only  smile  at 
this  lack  of  understanding.  It  belongs  to  the  naive 
side  of  their  character.  There  is  nothing  that 
arouses  more  displeasure  and  disgust  than  people 
who  thrust  themselves  upon  you.  They  will  al- 
ways be  met  with  the  cry:  "Keep  your  distance! 
I  will  choose  for  myself  what  I  want;  be  good 
enough  to  let  me  manage  my  own  affairs!"  But 
when  the  Germans  constantly,  perhaps  with  the 
best  intentions,  encroach  upon  you,  and,  in  ad- 
dition, always  declare  that  these  encroachments 
are  inspired  by  the  highest  sense  of  moral  obli- 
gation, for  which  the  poor  victims  ought  to  be 
glad  and  grateful,  then  there  is  an  end  to  one's 
patience.  Only  notice  the  altogether  amazing 
gift  the  Germans  possess  for  putting  the  most 
moral  label  on  their  most  sinister  encroachments ! 
Germany,  they  say,  will  on  no  account  annex  any- 
thing! Does  this  mean  that  Germany  will  make 
no  conquests?  Not  at  all,  for  they  add  that  of 
course  they  must  undertake  the  necessary  read- 
justments of  frontier  which  are  to  protect  them 
against  attacks  in  the  future.  They  actually  do 
not  seem  to  understand  that  the  populations  af- 
fected will  be  equally  dissatisfied  with  their  des- 
tined lot,  whether  it  be  called  annexation  or  ad- 
justment of  frontier.  In  the  same  way,  one  hears 
them  declare  with  lofty  moral  indignation,  that 
it  is  an  infamous  lie  which  charges  them  with  striv- 


TREND  OF  GERMAN  THOUGHT  29 

ing  for  world-supremacy.  Such  an  idea  could 
never  enter  their  heads.  No — but  what  do  they 
intend?  They  will  only  "organise  the  world"; 
they  will  only,  from  sheer  goodness  of  heart,  place 
their  brilliant  power  of  organisation  at  the  dis- 
posal of  mankind!  And  how  is  this  to  be  done? 
By  Prussian  judges  and  gendarmes?  By  German 
officers  and  traders?  And  if  one  refuses  to  be 
"organised"?  Is  one  then  to  be  compelled  to  ac- 
cept the  benefit,  the  value  of  which,  to  one's  shame, 
one  evidently  does  not  know  how  to  appreciate? 

It  is  this  German  intrusiveness,  the  Germans' 
offensive  undervaluing  of  other  nations,  their  un- 
bearable assertion  of  their  right  to  thrust  upon 
others,  by  force  if  necessary,  their  presumably 
higher  Kultur,  which  has  made  the  Germans  so 
hated.  And  it  is  the  trend  of  thought  here  out- 
lined, the  effects  of  which  I  propose  to  set  forth 
in  the  following  pages,  giving  chapter  and  verse 
to  prove  the  extent  of  its  influence.  In  general 
literature,  one  sees  almost  exclusively  references 
to  Treitschke  and  Bernhardi;  but  it  is  my  inten- 
tion to  show,  on  the  one  hand,  to  what  a  pitch  the 
contempt  and  hatred  for  things  foreign  has  been 
carried,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  how  widely  the 
overestimation,  not  to  say  the  worship,  of  things 
German  has  spread  in  Germany.  I  must  there- 
fore state  a  multitude  of  facts,  and  support  them 
by  ample  quotations.  I  have  indeed  an  inexhaust- 
ible fund  to  draw  from. 


CHAPTER  II 

GERMAN    PROPHETS 

TREITSCHKE  and  Bernhardi  might  justly  be 
included  among  the  German  prophets.  Many 
Germans  no  doubt  regard  Treitschke  in  particular 
in  this  light.  They  are  like  the  petrels  which 
herald  the  storm.  But  they  have  been  so  often 
subjected  to  scrutiny  that  I  shall  resist  the  temp- 
tation of  enlarging  upon  them.  There  are,  how- 
ever, others  who  may  very  fitly  be  dealt  with  in 
this  connection.  I  will  mention  three  men  whom 
the  Germans  have,  particularly  during  this  war, 
exalted  with  enthusiasm  as  their  prophets. 

The  first  place  is  due  to  Ernst  Moritz  Arndt, 
the  great  German  patriot  of  the  time  of  the 
War  of  Liberation.1  As  early  as  1834  he  de- 
clared in  one  of  his  writings  that  the  neutrality 
of  Belgium  could  not  possibly  be  maintained  in  a 
future  war.  (Nevertheless  it  was  maintained  in 
1870!)     He  wrote: 

"Belgium,  the  granary  and  armoury,  is  pre- 
destined to  be  the  battlefield  in  the  struggle  for 
the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine.  I  ask  any  General  or 
Statesman  who  has  seriously  considered  the  prob- 

1  See  G.  Traub:  A  us  der  Waffenschmiede,  191 5. 

30 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  31 

lems  of  war  and  politics,  whether  Belgium  can  re- 
main neutral  in  a  European  war — that  is  to  say, 
can  be  respected  as  neutral  any  longer  than^may 
appear  expedient  to  the  Power  which  feels  itself 
possessed  of  the  best  advantages  for  attack." 

The  German  writer  G.  Traub  makes  the  fol- 
lowing inimitable  comment  on  the  above:  "Thus 
an  Arndt  has,  as  far  back  as  eighty  years  ago, 
given  us  absolution  for  this  so-called  breach  of 
neutrality,  having  foreseen  that  it  is  here  a  ques- 
tion of  higher  necessities,  and  that  Belgium  her- 
self, tliat  'half-French  country,'  cannot  possibly  re- 
main neutral."  This  is  certainly  an  easy  mode  of 
obtaining  absolution,  by  simply  quoting  one's  de- 
parted prophets. 

But  there  is  more  to  come.  Arndt,  by  grub- 
bing in  some  old  documents,  discovered  that,  in 
the  year  18 14,  an  English  diplomat  conceived  the 
idea  that,  in  order  thoroughly  to  weaken  France, 
Prussia  should  be  made  the  guardian  of  the  fron- 
tier: all  the  old  German  lands  beyond  the  Rhine, 
including  the  province  of  Burgundy,  should  be 
united  and  handed  over  to  Prussia !  This  aston- 
ishing idea  met  with  Arndt's  eager  approval. 
Then,  indeed,  it  was  not  realised;  but  what  is  not 
yet  may  one  day  be.  In  any  case  it  is  clear  to  him 
that  Belgium  belongs  naturally  to  Germany,  and 
he  considers  whether  it  could  not  be  liberated  from 
French  influences  by  being  again  united  with  Hol- 
land.    This  may  be  impossible;  but  at  any  rate 


32       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


the  country's  union  with  Germany  is  demanded  by 
old  right,  and  by  both  old  and  new  duty.  Then 
follows  a  sentence  which  Herr  Traub  calls  classic, 
and  declares  to  contain  more  political  wisdom 
than  many  later  treatises: 

"On  the  fields  of  Belgium  Germany  and  England 
will  of  necessity  be  everlastingly  at  war  for  the 
possession  of  the  Rhine  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
Channel." 

Enthusiastically  Herr  Traub  exclaims :  He  had 
indeed  an  eagle  eye !  And  he  lauds  him  because 
he  is  always  thinking  of  the  reunion  of  old  Ger- 
man land  with  Prussia.  "His  heart  clings  to  the 
Rhine  and  the  Meuse:  here  he  will  stand  on  the 
bastions  of  the  German  Empire,  as  God  ordains, 
sword  in  hand." 

Thus  Arndt  is  the  prophet  of  Germany's  claim 
to  expand  over  Belgium  and  northern  France. 
But  he  may  also  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the 
adoring  worship  of  Germany  which  it  is  one  of 
our  objects  to  study.  For  he  is  the  author  of  the 
verse  so  often  quoted  by  Germans,  which  runs 
as  follows: 

Deutsche  Freiheit,  deutscher  Gott,1 
deutscher  Glaube  ohne  Spott, 
deutsches  Herz  und  deutscher  Stahl 
sind  vier  Helden  allzumal. 

1  German  freedom,  the  German  God,  German  faith 
without  profanity,  German  heart  and  German  steel,  are 
four  heroes  all  at  once. 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  33 

It  is  a  little  difficult  to  understand  the  arithme- 
tic, according  to  which  the  above  German  heroes 
are  counted  as  four  instead  of  five.  But  here  we 
already  find  the  poet  talking  of  the  German  God. 
May  I  at  this  point  make  an  observation  which 
is  perhaps  not  out  of  place?  German  papers  have 
of  late  been  overflowing  with  indignation  at 
French  frivolity,  because  a  French  paper  is  re- 
ported to  have  said,  that  the  French  would  surely 
"have  done  with  the  Germans  and  their  God." 
This  is  another  surprising  instance  of  German 
naivete.  How  could  they  possibly  expect  the 
French  to  believe  in  a  God  whom  they  declare  to 
be  German!  It  never  occurs  to  them  that  in  this 
French  remark  there  is  no  blasphemy  against 
God,  but  only  a  scornful,  and,  it  must  be  admitted, 
fully  justified  repudiation  of  the  dogma  of  the 
existence  of  a  specially  German  God. 

The  second  German  prophet  is  the  well-known 
philologist  and  theologian,  P.  de  Lagarde.  Al- 
ready in  1874  he  expressed  the  view  that  Bis- 
marck's creation  of  the  German  Empire  was  only 
an  episode  on  the  way  to  the  formation  of  the 
great  Middle-European  State.  He  calls  the  Ger- 
man Empire,  "Little  Germany."  Even  at  that 
time  Lagarde,  as  a  German  has  lately  put  it,  for- 
mulated the  national  demands  which  the  Germans 
"not  with  unblushing  arrogance,  but  realising  the 
inherent  necessity  of  the  case,"  must  consider  as 
the  indispensable  foundation  for  the  German  peo- 
ple's   co-operation    in    the    history    of    mankind. 


34      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

These  demands  are  extensions  of  frontier  both 
towards  the  east  and  the  west;  for  the  neutrality 
of  Belgium  cannot  be  relied  upon.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, a  question  of  simple  annexation.  No,  a 
much  higher  goal  is  aimed  at.  It  is  a  question  of 
"colonising,"  not  in  distant  parts  of  the  world, 
but  in  our  immediate  vicinity;  to  wit,  in  the  border- 
lands to  the  west,  in  the  non-German  portion  of 
the  Hapsburg  Monarchy,  and  in  the  adjoining 
portions  of  Russia  as  far  as  the  Black  Sea.  Then 
we  shall  see  a  great  Middle-European  Empire, 
with  frontiers  extending  from  Luxemburg  and 
Belfort  in  the  west,  to  the  old  land  of  the  Goths, 
by  the  Black  Sea,  in  the  east,  and  to  the  southward 
embracing  Trieste;  while  Asia  Minor  is  reserved 
for  future  requirements.  This  cannot  be  accom- 
plished without  war}  The  war  will  come,  and 
we  must  accustom  the  nation  to  the  thought  that 
it  will  come. 

But  Lagarde  was  also  a  prophet  as  regards  the 
other  point  in  question;  he  demanded  the  forma- 
tion of  a  special  German  religion.  The  German 
nation  is  an  organism,  this  organism  must  have  a 
soul,  this  soul  is  a  national  religion,  which  must 
be  neither  Protestant  nor  Catholic,  neither 
liberal  nor  orthodox,  neither  Christianity 
nor  the  religion  of  humanity.  Still,  Jesus  is 
to  have  a  place  within  it.  Lagarde  proposed  that 
there  should  be  at  the  universities  professors  of 
religious  philosophy,  whose  business  it  would  be 
1  All  italics  are  mine  when  not  otherwise  stated. — J.P.B. 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  35 

to  serve  as  "pathfinders"  for  this  new  German 
religion!  It  is  sufficient  simply  to  mention  this; 
to  enlarge  further  upon  so  grotesque  an  idea  is 
quite  unnecessary.1 

The  greatest  and  most  popular  of  all  the  new- 
German  prophets  is,  however,  the  poet  Emanuel 
Geibel,  whose  centenary  has  recently  been  cele- 
brated (born  1 8 15,  died  1884).  It  is  he  who  has 
given  the  classic  expression  to  the  new-German 
hope  of  Germany's  victorious  march  through  the 
world.  He  has  succeeded  in  finding  the  classical 
formula  for  the  German  arrogance  which  of  ne- 
cessity demands  that  Germanism  shall  be  placed 
above  everything  else  in  the  world,  and  at  the 
same  time  in  giving  this  arrogance  such  an  ex- 
pression that  it  shall  not  conflict  with  the  German 
demand  for  moral  justification.  This  has  been 
achieved  in  the  lines  to  which  I  have  already  re- 
ferred, and  which  are  quoted  times  without  num- 
ber in  the  newest  German  war  literature: 

"Und  es  mag  am  deutschen  Wesen 
Einmal  noch  die  Welt  genesen!" 

"The  world  may  yet  again  be  healed  by  Ger- 
manism?" The  hope  here  expressed  has  become 
a  certainty  for  modern  Germany,  and  the  Germans 
see  in  this  the  moral  basis  for  all  their  demands. 
Why  must  Germany  be  victorious,  why  must  she 

1  See  Paul  Fischer :  Paul  de  Lagarde,  ein  Prophet  des 
deutschen  Volkes,  "Christliche  Welt,"  Nos.  48-50,  1915; 
J.    P.   Bang:   Kristendom   og  Nationalitet,    1 900. 


36      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

have  her  place  in  the  sun,  why  must  her  frontiers 
be  extended,  why  is  all  opposition  to  Germany 
shameful,  not  to  say  devilish,  why  must  Germany 
become  a  world-empire,  why  ought  Germany,  and 
not  England,  to  become  the  great  Colonial  Power? 
Why,  because  it  is  through  the  medium  of  Ger- 
manism that  the  world  is  to  be  healed;  it  is  upon 
Germanism  that  the  salvation  of  the  world  de- 
pends. That  is  why  all  attacks  upon  Germanism 
are  an  offence  against  God's  plans,  and  opposition 
to  His  designs  for  the  world,  in  short,  a  sin  against 
God.  The  Germans  do  not  seem  able  to  under- 
stand that  other  nations  cannot  be  particularly 
delighted  at  being  described  as  sickly  shoots  which 
can  only  be  healed  by  coming  under  the  influence 
of  German  fountains  of  health.  Yet  one  would 
think  that,  if  they  would  only  reflect  a  little  upon 
what  these  two  lines  imply,  they  would  be  able 
in  some  measure  to  understand  that  dislike  for 
them,  which  they  declare  to  be  so  incomprehen- 
sible. 

But  Emanuel  Geibel  has  said  a  great  deal  more 
than  this.  He  is,  in  truth,  well  worth  studying. 
He  was  all  his  life  a  fervent  German  patriot.  To 
begin  with,  we  Danes  were  the  object  of  his  wrath. 
He  was,  of  course,  honestly  convinced  of  the  truth 
of  the  Slesvig-Holsteiners'  accusations  against 
Denmark,  and  enthusiastic  over  their  fight  for 
freedom.  The  Danes  have  the  audacity  to  violate 
(!)  a  German  race  !  Oh,  Germany  1  hast  thou  fal- 
len into  so  deep  a  slumber  that  thou  sufferest  these 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  37 

foreign  dwarfs  to  slash  thy  body  with  their  im- 
pudent axe  (1846)?  And  in  1852,  after  the  war, 
he  has  some  bitter  words  for  "the  Frenchman,  the 
Briton,  and  the  Russian"  on  the  occasion  of  the 
London  Conference:  When  they  take  counsel  to- 
gether, others  have  humbly  to  say  Amen.  And 
then,  of  a  truth,  there  follow  some  prophetic 
words:  he  predicts  for  these  chefs  and  cooks,  that 
some  day  a  host  of  angry  spirits  will  invade  their 
caldron,  and  then  the  gust  of  a  mighty  storm  will 
go  through  all  Germany,  and,  terror-stricken,  they 
will  see  the  world  in  flames.  Of  course  he  glories 
in  the  war  of  1864;  as  a  true  Teuton,  indeed,  he 
glories  in  war  for  its  own  sake :  at  last  comes  that 
holy  rain  of  fire  whereby  we  shall  be  healed,  and 
then  shall  the  sword  cut  to  pieces  the  shameful 
network  of  lies,  etc.  The  reader  will  observe 
that  the  course  of  thought  is  the  usual  one :  the 
poor  Germans  must  always  be  fighting  against 
infamous  lies.  It  was,  then,  the  Danes  who  were 
lying  in  1864!  When  one  knows  how  freely  the 
Slesvig-Holsteiners  lied  during  all  those  years, 
that  shameful  network  of  lies  is  a  little  difficult  for 
a  Dane  to  swallow.  In  conclusion,  he  glories  in 
the  battle  of  Dybbol  and  "liberated"  Slesvig. 

He  also  prophesied  about  the  great  Master 
who  would  arise  and  create  the  unity  of  Germany. 
This  prophecy  was  brilliantly  fulfilled  in  Bismarck. 
After  1866  he  loudly  clamours  for  Alsace-Lor- 
raine. This  he  cannot  reasonably  have  expected 
to  obtain  without  war;  but  when  the  war  comes 


38      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

we  hear  exactly  the  same  tale  as  now  of  the  Ger- 
mans' love  of  peace  and  the  despicable  deceitful- 
ness  of  their  enemies.  His  words  on  this  occasion 
are  extremely  interesting  by  reason  of  the  light 
they  throw  upon  the  present  day.     He  says  that: 

"Germany  had  set  her  mind  upon  building  her 
house  in  peace,  but  then  came  her  hereditary  foe, 
puffed  up  with  venom  and  envy.  The  blood  so 
criminally  shed  shall  be  upon  him  and  his  brood. 
We  do  not  dream  of  an  easy  victory;  this  war  is  a 
world  judgment,  and  strong  is  the  spirit  of  lies; 
but  He  who  was  once  the  stronghold  of  our 
fathers,  will  again  see  us  safely  through  it,  be  as- 
sured of  that!"  In  another  song,  against  "Babel" 
(that  is,  against  France),  he  says:  "Ye  have 
rejected  the  peace  which  a  faithful  mind  offered 
you,  therefore  ye  shall  have  strife,  misery,  and 
tribulation."  Then  he  draws  a  picture  of  the  ruin 
of  war:  shrieks,  hunger,  wolves,  vultures  feasting 
on  carcases — until  the  beaten  enemy  "forswears 
the  spirit  of  lies."  And  the  peace  shall  be  a  Ger- 
man peace;  now  tremble  before  the  sword  of  God 
and  of  Germany,  ye  who  are  strong  in  impiety 
and  fruitful  in  blood-guiltiness/  1 

Is  it  not  extraordinary  and  well  worth  noticing, 
that  in  every  detail  we  hear  exactly  the  same  strain 
now;  there  is  nothing  of  all  this  that  has  not  been 
said  a  thousand  times  during  the  present  war. 

1  From  Kriegeslied  (July  1870),  Ein  Psalm  wider 
Babel  (July  1870),  Deutsche  Siege  (August  1 8 70),  and 
Am  dritten  September  (1870). 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  39 

But  by  and  by  the  world  came  to  know  the  truth 
about  the  Ems  telegram. 

Geibel's  prophetic  genius,  however,  has  partic- 
ularly manifested  itself  in  the  two  poems  which, 
during  the  present  war,  have  come  into  special 
prominence  in  Germany,  where  they  are  constant- 
ly quoted  with  wondering  enthusiasm.  The  one 
bears  the  title  The  Call  of  Germany,  and  is  writ- 
ten in  the  year  1861,  consequently  just  before  the 
era  of  victory.  The  poet  sees  in  the  spirit  a  time 
of  greatness  for  Germany.  It  shall  come  when 
the  sacred  crown  (he  means,  no  doubt,  the  Im- 
perial crown)  again  adorns  a  lofty  brow,  and  the 
head  with  a  strong  will  controls  every  limb.  Then 
shall  the  word  of  Germany  again  have  weight  in 
the  councils  of  the  nations.  Then  shall  French 
levity  and  the  hordes  of  Russia  no  longer  have  the 
final  say.  No;  power  and  freedom,  right  and 
morals,  a  clear  mind  and  a  sharp  blow  will,  from 
a  strong  centre  (Germany),  chastise  the  wild 
lusts  of  all  self-seekers.  And  thereupon  follow 
the  famous  lines  about  the  healing  of  the  world 
by  Germanism. 

But  so  early  as  1859  Geibel  wrote  a  prophetic 
poem  which  is  really  still  more  remarkable.  It 
runs  thus : 

"Some  day  it  will  happen,  that  the  Lord  will 
remove  the  shame  of  his  people;  He  who  spoke 
on  the  field  of  Leipzig,  will  speak  once  more  in 


4o      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

thunder.  Then  be  of  good  cheer,  O  Germany. 
This  is  the  first  sign:  when  West  and  East  join 
hands  in  league  against  thee.  When  East  and 
West  unite  to  draw  the  sword  against  thee,  then 
know  that  God  will  not  forsake  thee,  if  thou  dost 
not  forsake  thyself.  Then  the  storm  will  con- 
sume thy  old  brother-feuds,  and  in  that  hour  will 
necessity  beget  for  thee  great  deeds  and  heroes, 
until,  in  renewed  might,  with  the  sign  of  mastery, 
as  ever,  on  thy  brow,  thou  shalt  sit  throned  above 
the  nations  of  Europe  as  a  princess  without  equal. 
Then  let  the  chastening  glow  of  a  world-conflagra- 
tion blaze  forth,  and  do  thou,  the  Imperial  Eagle 
of  the  German  land,  arise  like  Phoenix  from  the 
flames!"1 

One  can  easily  understand  that  the  Germans 
should  hail  this  poet  as  a  prophet.  His  prophecy, 
as  often  happens  with  prophecies,  was  not  ful- 
filled all  at  once.  First  came  1870,  which  gave 
Germany  the  Imperial  crown  and  the  Empire;  but 
East  and  West  did  not  yet  join  hands.  Now, 
however,  the  prophecy  that  East  and  West  should 
league  themselves  against  Germany  has  been  lit- 
erally fulfilled,  and  now  it  is  world-empire  that 
is  at  stake.  Thus  the  hope  of  all  Germans  was 
already  expressed  in  these  words  of  Geibel's  fifty- 
six  years  ago. 

And  should  peace  one  day  be  concluded  as  a 
"German  peace,"  the  Germans  will  assuredly  sing 
as  Geibel  sang  after  the  last  war : 

1  From  Einst  geschiet's    (1859). 


GERMAN  PROPHETS  41 

"God,  who  went  before  us  in  the  flame  of  fire, 
now  grant  our  people  strength  for  the  last  victory, 
strength  to  root  out  the  dark  seed  of  lies,  the 
foreign  alloy,  from  our  hearts,  in  faith,  word  and 
deed.  Enter  at  every  portal,  thou  strong  Ger- 
man spirit,  which,  born  of  light,  dost  show  us  the 
way  to  light,  and  establish  in  our  midst,  at  once 
weapon-strong  and  pious,  in  freedom,  discipline, 
and  morality,  Thy  Millennium." 

No  wonder  that  Geibel  is  accounted  the  prophet 
of  the  coming  German  millennium  on  earth ! 


CHAPTER  III 

GERMAN  WAR   POETRY 

["X  is  needless  to  say  that  the  war  has  called  forth 
-*■  an  endless  number  of  poets.  Most  of  them, 
as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  are  of  small  enough 
poetical  merit;  but  the  ideas  I  am  here  studying, 
the  glorification  of  Germanism  and  its  mission  in 
world-history,  the  passionate  hatred  and  boundless 
contempt  for  the  opponents  of  Germany,  are  very 
conspicuous  in  the  domain  of  song. 

The  new-German  spirit  has  found  one  of  its 
most  classical  expressions  in  a  collection  of  poems 
published  by  a  German  pastor,  Konsistorialrat 
Dietrich  Vorwerk,  under  the  significant  title, 
Hurrah  and  Hallelujah.  I  find  in  this  combina- 
tion something  so  absolutely  characteristic  of  the 
German  spirit,  that  I  have  adopted  it  as  the  title 
for  this  book.  In  the  first  edition  of  Pastor  Vor- 
werk's  poems  there  occurred  a  paraphrase  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  of  which  I  will  cite  the  last  three 
petitions  and  the  close: 

"Though  the  warrior's  bread  be  scanty,  do 
Thou  work  daily  death  and  tenfold  woe  unto  the 
enemy.  Forgive  in  merciful  long-suffering  each 
bullet  and  each  blow  which  misses  its  mark!   Lead 

42 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  43 

us  not  into  the  temptation  of  letting  our  wrath 
be  too  tame  in  carrying  out  Thy  divine  judgment! 
Deliver  us  and  our  Ally  from  the  infernal  Enemy 
and  his  servants  on  earth.  Thine  is  the  kingdom, 
the  German  land;  may  we,  by  aid  of  Thy  steel- 
clad  hand,  achieve  the  power  and  the  glory." 

Here,  however,  the  Germans  themselves 
thought  the  poet  had  gone  too  far;  the  poem  was 
denounced  as  blasphemous  in  a  religious  paper, 
and  it  did  not  appear  in  later  editions  of  the 
book.  Even  in  war-time  it  seems  that  there  are 
people  who  do  not  quite  like  to  see  a  Protestant 
clergyman,  in  the  interests  of  Germanism,  pub- 
lishing a  blasphemous  adaptation  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

The  book  in  question  is  not  without  some  bet- 
ter notes  :  it  contains  exhortations  to  bend  the  knee 
before  God  in  earnest  self-examination,  and  the 
mere  fact  of  its  being  full  of  jubilation  and  thanks- 
giving for  German  victories  is  no  ground  for  re- 
proach. But  these  thoughts  are  not  kept  in  proper 
balance,  and  the  poems  are  saturated  with  the 
sentiment  to  which  I  have  referred,  namely  that 
the  German  people  are,  above  all  other  peoples, 
specially  endowed  by  God,  and  under  His  peculiar 
guidance  and  care.  I  will  illustrate  this  by  one  or 
two  examples: 

The  poet  asks  the  question  how  it  can  be,  that 
Germany  is  surrounded  by  nothing  but  enemies, 
and  has  not  a   single   friend.      (The  poem  was 


44       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

probably  written  before  the  Turks  joined  in.)  It 
it  not  Germany's  own  fault?  No,  replies  the  pious 
poet :  Do  you  not  know  that  Prince  of  Hell  whose 
name  is  Envy,  who  unites  scoundrels,  and  sunders 
heroes?  Let  us  rejoice  that  Envy  has  thus  risen 
up  against  us;  it  only  shows  that  God  has  exalted 
and  richly  blessed  us.  Think  of  Him  who  was 
hanged  on  the  Cross,  and  seemed  forsaken  of 
God,  and  had  to  tread  in  such  loneliness  His  path 
to  victory.  My  German  people,  even  if  thy  road 
be  strewn  with  thorns  and  beset  by  enemies,  press 
onward,  full  of  defiance  and  confidence.  The 
heavenly  ladder  is  still  standing.  Thou  and  thy 
God,  ye  are  the  majority. 

Another  poem  begins  in  the  spirit  of  the  Old 
Testament,  with  a  curse  on  those  who  are  not 
zealous  enough  in  executing  the  judgments  of 
God's  wrath.  The  war  is  a  holy  war.  Then  fol- 
lows a  long  enumeration  showing  that  everything 
on  the  German  side  is  holy — their  right,  their 
covenant,  their  wrath,  their  hand,  their  graves; 
but  thrice  holy  is  the  old  God  who  leads  the  Ger- 
man banners  to  their  holy  goals,  and  cursed  be  he 
who  despairs  of  the  victory  of  his  God  and  who 
advocates  a  rotten  peace,  etc.  Another  poem 
describes  the  character  of  the  Briton,  and  reminds 
one  strangely  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican : 
"Covetousness,  a  huckstering  spirit,  a  thirst  for 
gain,  calculating  envy,  hypocrisy — what  despicable 
vices  have  they  not  become  to  us.  We  spit  at 
them,  we  hate  them,  just  because  they  are  British, 
allied  to  British  falsehood  and  craft.  We  cer- 
tainly must  confess  to  our  shame  that  we  also  had 
our  share  of  them;  but  now  we  have  thrust  them 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  45 

all  from  us,  now  we  walk  in  gentle  innocence 
through  homely  pastures,  free  from  greed  of 
money,  stripped  of  all  cunning,  because — just 
because  it  is  all  British." 

In  conclusion  I  will  cite  one  or  two  ebullitions 
of  the  "holy  hatred"  which  inspires  our  poet. 
He  thus  invokes  God  in  a  Battle  Prayer:  "Thou 
who  dwellest  high  above  Cherubim,  Seraphim  and 
Zeppelins  in  Thy  Heaven,  Thou  who  art  en- 
throned as  a  God  of  thunder  in  the  midst  of  light- 
ning from  the  clouds,  and  lightning  from  sword 
and  cannon,  send  thunder,  lightning,  hail  and 
tempest  hurtling  upon  our  enemy,  bestow  upon  us 
his  banners,  hurl  him  down  into  the  dark  burial- 
pits."  In  conclusion  take  the  following  lyric  of 
holy  hatred:  "We  had  quite  forgotten  it,  this 
burning  hatred,  we  Germans,  who  are  wont  to 
stand  in  admiration  of  alien  customs  and  foreign 
races,  as  if  it  were  they  who  gave  us  everything 
good.  To  the  Japanese  we  gave  German  arms, 
we  gave  the  British  shopkeepers  German  science, 
and  we  rejoiced  to  enhance  the  power  of  our  op- 
ponents with  the  fruits  of  our  mind.  This  is  at 
an  end.  Our  eyes  have  now  penetrated  into  a 
bottomless  pit  of  baseness.  Those  whom  we 
made  happy  leagued  themselves  in  envy  of  the 
radiant  course  of  our  own  happiness;  those  whom 
we  armed  ungratefully  strive  to  pierce  our  hearts 
with  poisonous  weapons;  those  who  have  eaten 
of  the  bread  of  our  spirit,  it  is  they  whom  we  see 
in  their  malice  working  for  our  destruction.  O 
God,  Thou  who  art  the  enemy  of  cowardly 
assassins,  a  relentless  foe  of  greedy  ingratitude, 
we  thank  Thee  that  the  mask  of  fraud  has  been 


46      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

torn  from  the  face  of  the  hypocrite.  Help  us  to 
judge  with  Thy  holy  hatred  all  who  insolently 
strive  to  seize  Thy  Crown,  so  that  we  may  not 
cease  to  destroy,  until  death  has  fully  ripened  the 
fruit!" 

This  last  poem  in  particular  is  uncanny  and 
almost  unaccountable  even  to  one  who  is  familiar 
with  the  trend  of  new-German  thought.  Only  on 
the  hypothesis  of  the  most  thick-skinned  naivete 
can  we  regard  such  a  production  as  psychologically 
comprehensible.  Is  it  really  possible,  one  asks, 
that  a  cultured  German,  in  downright  earnest,  can 
positively  mean  that  it  is  only  the  Germans,  the 
innocent  credulous  Germans,  who  have  been  the 
givers,  that  it  is  they  who  in  their  unselfish  mag- 
nanimity have  blessed  the  rest  of  the  world  with 
the  products  of  their  genius  and  their  ingenuity, 
and  who  ought  consequently  to  be  so  tenderly 
cherished  by  all  the  rest  of  us,  that  we  should  be 
eager  to  show  our  boundless  gratitude  by  comply- 
ing with  all  the  wishes  of  our  German  benefactors ! 
They  have  received  nothing  from  others;  they 
have  been  givers  and  givers  only;  one  would  really 
suppose  that  they  had  presented  their  products  to 
the  rest  of  the  world  free,  gratis,  for  nothing! 
Even  if  they  have  received  nothing  else,  they  have 
surely  received  a  trifle  of  money  for  their  trouble. 
Or  has  Germany,  in  blue-eyed  innocence,  wandered 
along  her  quiet  paths,  spreading  joy  and  happi- 
ness around  her,  and  then  suddenly  been  set  upon 
in  the  most  dastardly  way  by  all  those  who  ought 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  47 

to  have  thanked  her  on  their  bended  knees  for  her 
incomprehensible  bounty  and  goodness  towards 
them?  Such  a  way  of  thinking  is  not  only  pos- 
sible, but,  as  will  appear  in  the  following  pages, 
frequent.  That  Zeppelins  should  be  exalted  into 
the  company  of  the  Cherubim  and  Seraphim  is 
certainly  a  proof  of  that  astounding  lack  of  taste 
which  we  so  often  encounter  in  German  Kultur. 
Another  poet,  Fritz  Philippi,  has  written  the 
following  poem,  entitled  W orld-Germany : 

"In  the  midst  of  the  world-war,  Germany  lies 
like  a  peaceful  garden  of  God  behind  the  wall  of 
her  armies.  Then  the  poet  hears  the  giant  strides 
of  the  new  armour-clad  Germany;  the  earth 
trembles,  the  nations  shriek,  the  old  era  sinks  into 
ruin.  Formerly  German  thought  was  shut  up  in 
her  corner,  but  now  the  world  shall  have  its  coat 
cut  according  to  German  measure  ('Jetzt  wird  der 
Welt  gemessen  Der  Rock  nach  deutschem 
Maass'),  and  as  far  as  our  swords  flash  and  Ger- 
man blood  flows,  the  circle  of  the  earth  shall  come 
under  the  tutelage  of  German  activity." 

It  is  the  very  thought  of  being  forced  into  the 
mould  of  the  German  JVesen,  and  becoming  sub- 
ject to  German  "tutelage"  which  fills  us  non-Ger- 
mans with  such  horror.1 

In  the  Schlesische  Zeitung  for  November  9, 
1 9 14,  the  following  lines  appear  in  a  poem  about 
Kiautschau : 

1  Christliche  Welt,  19  H»  nr.  38. 


48       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

"O  God,  do  Thou  accept  us  as  strong  and 
worthy  to  wield  Thy  fell  sword  of  vengeance;  as 
Thy  faithful  servants  will  we  bleed  and  conquer 
for  the  right,  and  we  will  avenge  the  blood  of  our 
brethren  with  truly  godlike  courage.  Oh,  help 
us,  Father,  at  the  right  time,  Thou  the  Father  of 
all  justice." 

The  foremost  place,  however,  in  German  war- 
poetry,  at  least  as  far  as  publicity  is  concerned,  is 
due  to  the  notorious  Hymn  of  Hate  against  Eng- 
land which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  was 
written  by  Ernst  Lissauer,  and  was  distributed  by 
the  Crown  Prince  of  Bavaria  to  his  army.  It  had 
an  immense  success,  and  actually  became  a  kind 
of  national  song,  being  sung  and  played  every- 
where. The  following  quotation  will  suffice  to 
give  an  idea  of  its  style: 

"We  will  gather  together  to  judgment,  and  take 
an  oath  face  to  face,  an  oath  for  our  children  and 
children's  children;  hear  the  word  and  repeat  it, 
let  it  roll  through  the  whole  of  Germany:  we  will 
not  desist  from  our  hatred:  we  all  have  but  one 
hatred,  we  love  together,  we  hate  together,  we 
all  have  but  one  enemy,  England." 

The  effect  of  this  poem  has  been  incalculable. 
In  the  early  stages  of  the  war  there  arose  in  Ger- 
many a  mighty  wave  of  passionate  hatred  for 
England,  foaming  and  surging  to  such  a  degree 
that  its  expression  could  not  but  fill  one  with  hor- 
ror.    "Gott  strafe  England!"  became  the  daily 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  49 

greeting,  spoken  and  written.  When,  for  instance, 
a  company  paraded  in  the  morning,  the  captain 
cried  in  a  loud  voice:  "Gott  strafe  England!'* 
and  the  response  came  from  two  hundred  and  fifty 
throats:  "Er  strafe  es."  And  this  greeting 
spread  from  the  army  to  the  whole  nation: 
"When  you,  for  instance,  sit  at  your  Stammtisch, 
do  not  say  'Prosit/'  when  you  drink;  no,  do  as  we 
do,  say  'Gott  strafe  England/'  and  reply  'Er 
strafe  es.'  " 

Let  me  for  a  moment  dwell  upon  the  subject 
of  this  terrible  hatred,  which  has  reached  such 
a  delirious  height  in  Germany.  "It  is  the  literal 
truth,  that  in  Russia,  France,  and  England  we  are 
fighting  against  falsehood  and  cunning,  cowardice 
and  baseness,  envy  and  treachery,  every  possible 
form  of  unrighteousness."  These  are  the  expres- 
sions, not  of  a  gutter  paper  (the  writer  has  paid 
no  heed  to  this  class  of  publication),  but  of  a 
well-considered  and  outwardly  calm  article  in  a 
German  religious  paper  of  good  standing,  the 
Allgemeine  evangelisch-lutherische  Kirchenzei- 
tung,  from  which  I  have  made  many  other  quota- 
tions. But  although  the  three  principal  enemies 
of  Germany  are  here  bracketed  together,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  hatred  is  specially  di- 
rected against  England.  "We  have  all  but  one 
enemy,  whom  you  all  know,  he  who,  in  his  deceit 
and  cunning,  screens  himself  behind  the  grey 
waves;  from  our  hatred  for  him  we  will  never 


So      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

desist,"  says  the  above-mentioned  Hymn  of  Hate. 
"That  England  alone  is  behind  it,  and  is  the  direct 
instigator  of  the  world-war,  that  we  all  know." 
This  is  indeed  an  established  dogma  for  all  Ger- 
mans, and  further  it  is  declared:  "The  violations 
of  law  which  England  commits  on  all  sides  are 
legion;  the  most  brutal  acts  of  arbitrariness  and 
inhumanity  incessantly  follow  each  other.  Justice 
is  continually  set  aside." 

Ought  one,  then,  not  to  hate?  Certainly  one 
ought,  says  this  Christian  paper;  one  ought  to 
hate,  not  the  individual,  but  the  nation.     For: 

"England  is  now  the  scourge  of  God  under 
which  the  whole  world  groans  (  !),  which  hinders 
commerce  and  trade,  takes  no  heed  of  neutrality, 
and  has  conjured  up  this  terrible  war  with  the 
one  object  of  crushing  Germany;  it  is  because  of 
England  that  the  best  sons  of  our  people  are 
bleeding  out  their  lives  upon  the  battlefield,  that 
death  in  a  hundred  shapes  is  stalking  over  the 
earth,  that  peaceful  countries  are  given  over  to 
ruin  and  conflagration  ( !),  that  irreparable  treas- 
ures of  German  Kultur  are  ravaged  by  Russian 
barbarians.  It  is  England  that  has  let  loose  the 
wild  lust  of  conquest  of  heathen  Asiatics  against 
the  people  of  the  Reformation,  and  thereby  placed 
European  Christianity  in  danger  of  losing  its 
most  sacred  possessions  (!).  Verily,  German 
Christianity  would  not  be  worthy  of  the  name, 
if  it  did  not  flame  up  at  this  spectacle,  if  it  did 
not  burn  with  one  anger,  and  clench  but  one  fist, 
and  that  against  England." 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  51 


These  words  are  actually  printed  and  published. 
When  such  expressions  of  the  wildest,  most  ir- 
reflective  hatred  can  find  their  way  into  an  other- 
wise quite  reputable  religious  paper,  how,  then, 
must  it  be  with  the  German  nation  at  large !  It 
hates  England  with  a  "long  hatred,"  as  the  above- 
mentioned  poem  phrases  it,  and  so  much  is  cer- 
tain, that  Germany  will  not  rest  until  she  has  com- 
pletely crushed  England,  if  not  in  this  war,  then 
by  and  by.  In  the  article  in  question,  the  Old 
Testament  is  cited  in  support  of  this  hatred.  And 
the  New  Testament  ?  True,  it  speaks  of  love,  but, 
we  are  told,  it  speaks  also  of  such  love  as  makes 
the  shepherd  slay  the  wolf  in  order  to  save  the 
sheep.  And  the  sheep  are  the  German  Fatherland, 
while  the  wolf  is  England.  All  England's  crimes 
are  then  recited  afresh,  and  the  effusion  concludes 
with  the  prophetic  words :  "Woe  unto  thee,  thou 
destroyer,  for  thou  shalt  thyself  be  destroyed." 

It  is  true  that  of  late  certain  voices  have  been 
raised  in  Germany  against  the  hymn  of  hate,  even 
the  author  himself  has  in  a  measure  disowned  it, 
and  it  has  not  been  thought  advisable  to  include 
it  in  school-books — but  unfortunately  this  does 
not  mean  very  much.  The  harm  is  done,  and, 
moreover,  the  poison  of  hatred,  as  we  shall  see, 
is  continually  dripping  into  the  German  soul 
through  the  medium  of  new  poems  and  speeches. 
The  following  verse  about  England,  from  a  poem 
by  Otto  Riemasch,  is  praised  as  being  "particularly 
affecting" : 


52       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

"But  a  hundred  times  more  glowing  than  our 
steel,  shall  the  mark  of  our  contempt  be  branded 
upon  thee.  Wander  then  as  a  lonely  Ahasuerus, 
restless  and  unhappy,  over  land  and  sea.  And 
if  thou  sayest:  'I  have  flung  the  firebrand  of  hell 
from  earth  to  heaven,  over  sea  and  land,  I  have 
struck  God  and  mankind  in  the  face,  and  must 
now  bear  all  their  curses,  an  everlasting  stigma 
seared  with  fire,'  then  shalt  thou  speak  the  truth 
for  the  first  time.  Laugh  on  behind  thy  mask, 
thine  hour  has  come." 

At  times,  indeed,  German  writers  also  rage 
fiercely  against  their  other  enemies,  as  in  the  fol- 
lowing verse  against  the  Russians: 

"You  have  now  the  enemy  in  your  clutch,  pass 
a  just  judgment.  Let  the  leaden  bullets  of  East 
Prussia  buzz,  and  let  each  bullet  account  for  the 
life  of  a  foe.  Huddled  together  in  gangs,  with 
uplifted  arms,  cut  off  on  islands  between  bottom- 
less bogs,  staggering  under  the  hailstorm  which 
our  artillery  showers  upon  them  .  .  .  the  enemy 
no  longer  defends  himself.  .  .  .  Do  you  hear  his 
cowardly  whining  for  mercy?  Are  you  lowering 
your  rifles?  Are  you  making  prisoners?  Is  it 
your  duty  now  to  show  humanity?" 

Still  it  is  always  England  to  which  they  hark 
back.     For  instance  Herr  Eulenburg: 

"Oh,  England,  thou  perfidious  land,  it  shall 
never  be  forgotten  that  thou  hast  betrayed  thy 
brethren  for  filthy  lucre." 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  53 

Or  O.  v.  Gierke : 

"Storm  on  with  thy  Slavic  and  Gallic  accom- 
plices, thou  low-minded  nation;  thou  shalt  never 
falsify  the  judgment  of  God,  perfidious  Albion." 

Or  G.  Falck: 

"White  snow,  white  snow,  fall,  fall  for  seven 
weeks;  all  may'st  thou  cover,  far  and  wide,  but 
never  England's  shame;  white  snow,  white  snow, 
never  the  sins  of  England." 

But  the  other  keynote  too — Germany,  as  the 
great  nation  specially  favoured  by  God,  entirely 
pure  and  innocent,  the  instrument  in  the  avenging 
hand  of  Heaven — is  of  course  in  frequent  request. 
For  instance,  E.  Kiihnemann: 

"Why  this  war?  we  do  not  know!  Perhaps, 
my  people,  a  judgment  on  the  world.  And  thou 
the  sword  in  God's  hand,  flashing  down  upon  the 
wicked." 

Or  T.  Suze : 

"The  Germans  are  the  first  before  the  throne 
of  God — Thou  couldst  not  place  the  golden 
crown  of  victory  in  purer  hands." 

Or  J.  Hort: 

"Never  have  ye  seen  a  strong  people  and  Em- 
pire in  whiter  garments  of  peace.    We  offered  you 


54       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

palm  branches,  we  offered  you  justice,  ye  offered 
us  envy  and  hate." 

Or  F.  Lienhardt: 

"When  these  storms  have  done  their  work, 
Germany's  purest  mission  begins:  to  become  a 
place  of  refuge,  a  holy  grove  for  all  the  seekers 
of  the  earth,  a  central  land,  a  land  of  wisdom,  a 
land  of  morals.  Then  will  it  be  the  flower- 
wreathed  hospitable  gateway,  facing  towards  the 
glittering  East." 

OrK.  Hildebrand: 

"Blessings  stream  and  flow  down  upon  those 
who  have  given  themselves  up  to  thee;  there  Ger- 
man virtues  gush  limpid  forth,  there  German 
power  wells  up.  What  a  draught  from  this 
spring!  Strong  and  deep  and  of  high  courage, 
the  German  spirit  flows  along,  the  German  nature 
(Wesen)  flows  far  over  the  life  of  all  nations." 

In  this  way  German  poets  lose  themselves  in 
radiant  visions  of  the  blessings  which  victorious 
Germany  is  to  shower  upon  the  poor,  thirsty,  ailing 
world.  But  in  the  meantime  the  cry  is,  as  F. 
Philippi  puts  it: 

"We  have  become  a  nation  of  wrath;  we  think 

only  of  the  war. We  execute  God's  Almighty 

will,  and  the  edicts  of  His  justice  we  will  fulfil,  im- 
bued   with    holy    rage,    in    vengeance    upon    the 


GERMAN  WAR  POETRY  55 

ungodly.     God  calls  us  to  murderous  battles,  even 

if  worlds  should  thereby  fall  to  ruins. We  are 

woven  together  like  the  chastening  lash  of  war; 
we  flame  aloft  like  the  lightning;  like  gardens  of 
roses  our  wounds  blossom  at  the  gate  of  Heaven. 
We  thank  Thee,  Lord  God!  Thy  wrathful  call 
obliterates  our  sinful  nature;  with  Thine  iron  rod 
we  smite  all  our  enemies  in  the  face." 

The  decidedly  unpoetical  collection  of  poems : 
Neue  Kriegs-  und  Friedens-Kirchenlieder,  manu- 
factured by  Pastor  Emil  Schultz,  bears  the  same 
stamp.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  quite  so  bad  as  Hurrah 
and  Hallelujah,  but  it  rests  entirely  upon  the  same 
idea:  that  God  is  the  God  of  the  German  nation, 
and  that  the  German  people  are  God's  people, 
whilst  other  nations  come  under  the  heading  of 
gangs  (Rotten)  who  cannot  possibly  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  God : 

"Let  us  move  ever  on  the  road  to  victory, 
German  Christians !  Then  God  will  at  the  end  of 
this  war  drive  out  all  the  enemies  who  so  inso- 
lently mock  His  people,  who  constantly  reconcile 
themselves  with  God." 

This  latter  description  of  the  German  people 
strikes  one  as  distinctly  peculiar.  The  last  verse 
of  this  song  runs  thus : 

"Help  us  also  in  the  future,  Thou  God  of  Vic- 
tory, let  us  soon  reach  the  goal,  grant  that  all  the 
hostile  gangs  may  now  be  afraid  in  earnest.   Lead 


56       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


us  also,  0  Lord,  to  the  final  victory  in  the  great 


war." 


The  poetical  taste  of  this  writer  may  be  gauged 
by  the  following  lines,  which  I  must  really  give  in 
the  original: 

"Bringt  Gott  den  Psalterklang, 
er  tone  lebenslang 
deutschen  Gauen, 
denn  nimmermehr 
von  Gottes  Ehr' 
lasst  Deutschlands  Land-Luft-  und  Seewehr."  ■ 

The  last  line  is  inimitable,  and  with  it  I  will 
end  this  chapter. 


i  »i 


'Praise  God  to  the  sound  of  the  psaltery,  let  it  swell 
for  evermore  from  German  lands;  for  never  will  God's 
honour  cease  to  be  the  theme  of  Germany's  land-  air-  and 

sea-forces. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   WAR   IN   SERMONS 

HERR  A.  FENDRICH,  in  his  book:  Mi*  dem 
Auto  an  die  Front,  which  has  been  much 
read  and  commented  upon,  especially  on  account 
of  its  having  been  written  by  a  Social  Democrat, 
relates  a  conversation  which  he  had  with  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Chancellor  on  his  visit  to  the  Front. 

"The  Chancellor,  big  and  erect,  gave  me  his 
soft,  strong  hand.  My  hands  are  not  small,  but 
my  right  hand  seemed  to  disappear  in  his.  I  like 
his  hand.  It  radiates  warmth  and  faithfulness." 
Then  the  Emperor  appears,  and  an  interesting 
conversation  ensues  between  him  and  the  Social 
Democrat.  The  Emperor  first  emphasises  his 
love  of  peace,  and  then  Herr  Fendrich  records 
his  further  utterances  as  follows:  "We  had 
greatly  overvalued  all  other  nations,  even  the 
French.  The  French  are  a  people  on  the  down 
grade.  Their  mode  of  warfare  teems  with  the 
grossest  atrocities,  with  such  terrible  acts,  that 
only  a  secret  war-book  can  some  day  record  them. 
For  half  an  hour  the  Emperor,  inwardly  reluctant, 
and  yet  carried  away  by  the  monstrosity  of  the 
matters  in  question,  detailed  to  me  facts  duly  set 
down  on  oath,  about  French  officers'  and  doctors' 

57 


58       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

mode  of  treating,  not  only  the  enemy,  but  also 
their  own  people,  which  left  no  hope  of  any  re- 
covery. France  is  a  doomed  country.  And  the 
tears  which  more  than  once  filled  the  Emperor's 
eyes  were  often  tears  of  shame  at  the  thought 
of  such  behaviour  on  the  part  of  a  people  who 
were  still  looked  upon  as  chivalrous  and  noble, 
but  who  had  fallen  victims  to  a  fixed  idea."  On 
this  point  the  Emperor  and  the  Social  Democrat 
were  entirely  agreed,  and  the  latter  next  mentions 
another  point  with  regard  to  which  he  also  entirely 
approved  of  the  Emperor's  views,  namely,  the 
purpose  of  the  war:  "Its  purpose  and  aim  is  the 
unification  and  purification  of  Germany,  in  order 
that  it  may  be  qualified  for  its  historical  task;  to 
be  the  heart  of  Europe,  and  labour  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  European  humanity.  We  are  fighting  the 
fight  of  light  against  darkness.  We  are  not  all 
good,  but  our  will  is  bent  towards  the  good.  And 
to  the  upright  of  spirit,  God  will  allot  success. — 
This  was  his  main  idea  as  to  the  purpose  of  the 
war,  and  it  was  as  if  one  could  hear  the  clear 
voices  of  children  singing:  'Oh,  Germany,  high 
in  honour,  thou  holy  land  of  faith' — " 

Although  it  is  a  little  outside  the  scope  of  this 
book,  considering  the  interest  which  attaches  to 
this  conversation  between  the  Emperor  and  the 
Social  Democrat,  I  will  quote  this  concluding  re- 
flection: 

"Social  matters  were  not  touched  upon.  But 
I  am  firmly  convinced,  that  the  Kaiser,  with  his 


THE  WAR  IN  SERMONS  59 


keenly  searching  mind,  after  the  conclusion  of 
peace,  and  in  view  of  the  nation's  unanimity  in 
the  defence  of  the  Fatherland,  will  once  more 
seize  the  opportunity  of  becoming  the  Unification- 
Kaiser  of  a  Social  State  with  all  the  wealth  of 
personality  which  Germany  alone  can  boast,  this 
land  of  soul-love,  and  empire  of  democratic-mo- 
narchical synthesis." 

This  again  shows  that,  from  the  highest  places 
down  to  the  ranks  of  the  workmen,  all  are  agreed 
about  the  two  fundamental  ideas :  firstly,  the  low 
standing  and  often  utter  worthlessness  of  non- 
German  nations  in  comparison  with  the  German 
people,  and,  secondly,  the  special  calling  of  Ger- 
manism, its  world-mission  to  be  the  salt  and  the 
light  of  mankind.  In  my  book,  Christianity  and 
Nationality,  published  fifteen  years  ago,  I  have 
given  several  examples  of  this  tendency  of  thought, 
of  which  I  shall  here  quote  only  one : 

In  a  commentary  on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
intended  to  serve  as  a  help  in  evangelical  religious 
teaching,  we  read  in  an  exposition  of  the  words 
"The  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth,"  that  one  can 
rule  over  the  earth  in  different  senses ;  in  an  earthly 
and  in  a  heavenly  sense.  As  examples  of  false 
world-conquerors  are  named  Augustus,  Charles 
V.,  and  Napoleon,  while  opposed  to  them  as  "true 
world-conquerors"  are  Jesus,  St.  Paul,  Luther,  and 
William  I.  Thus  young  Germans  are  taught  to 
look  upon  the  Emperor  William  I.  as  the  last  link 
in  a  series  which  begins  with  Jesus.     On  page  5 


60       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

of  the  same  book,  Bismarck  is  quoted  in  the  same 
breath  with  Paul  and  other  New  Testament 
writers.  Further,  in  a  modern  German  school- 
book  we  read  that  "Christ  shall  be  a  German 
Christ  for  us  Germans,"  and  that  God  has  a 
special  mission  for  Germany,  as  distinct  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  in  virtue  of  which  Germany 
"cannot  succumb  and  die,  but  must  live  and  con- 
quer." 

This  may  give  some  idea  of  the  extravagances 
of  nationalism  which  certainly  prevail  in  German 
school-teaching,  not  only  of  history  but  also  of 
religion.  It  is  my  present  object  to  show  to  what 
a  height  these  extravagances  have  been  carried 
by  German  preachers  in  their  sermons  during  the 
war.  The  two  fundamental  ideas  above-men- 
tioned— the  passionate  hatred  and  contemptuous 
disparagement  of  other  nations,  and  the  equally 
excessive  idolatry  of  Germanism  as  the  world's 
sole  and  last  remaining  hope  of  salvation — have, 
through  the  war,  reached  a  high  pitch  of  develop- 
ment. If  this  assertion,  however,  is  to  be  fully 
proven,  a  few  isolated  quotations  will  not  suffice. 
The  proof  must  be  produced  in  such  detail  that 
no  one  can  resist  the  demonstration  aimed  at,  or 
fail  to  realise  that  these  ideas  have  assumed  an 
endless  variety  of  shapes,  that  they  have  in  a  great 
degree  overshadowed  the  German  mind,  and  that 
their  continued  growth  and  victory  would  be  the 
most  terrible  menace  for  all  Germany's  neigh- 
bours, ay,  for  the  whole  earth. 


THE  WAR  IN  SERMONS  61 

A  theological  professor,  E.  Cremer,  has  lately 
written  in  a  religious  paper,  that  in  recent  German 
sermons  the  "eschatological  element,"  that  is,  the 
doctrine  of  the  end  of  things,  the  hope  of  the  final 
consummation  of  the  world's  course,  has  been 
markedly  forced  into  the  background;  and  the 
reason  for  this  he  finds  in  the  idea  that  there  must 
first  be  room  in  world-history  for  that  great  event, 
"theT  healing  of  the  sick  world  by  Germanism." 

"The  hope  to  which  these  words  of  the  poet 
give  expression,  lies  in  the  direction  which  our 
history  has  followed.  And  in  this  direction  the 
will  of  the  Ruler  of  the  world  is  also  fulfilled. 
And  confidence  in  the  faithfulness  of  God  makes 
this  a  living  hope  in  the  breasts  of  those  who  have 
an  open  eye  for  the  sins  of  the  nations.  Besides, 
the  man  from  whom  these  words  emanated  has 
proved  to  be  a  seer.  And  Geibel's  Christian 
standpoint  helps  to  bring  it  about,  that  especially 
those  who  are  the  guardians  of  the  Christian  hope 
have  now  above  all  things  become  national. 
Geibel's  verses  are  particularly  treasured  in 
Christian  circles." 

Further,  we  are  reminded  of  Schiller's  words 
concerning  "a  German  day  in  history,"  which 
should  thus  be  "a  day  of  harvest  for  the  whole 
world."  "Only  one  element  of  hope  can  the  poet 
discern  which  might  yet  be  able  to  arrest  the  other- 
wise irresistible  development:  namely,  German- 
ism." Treitschke  is  then  referred  to,  and  the 
writer  continues : 


62       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

"There  are  also  signs  that  the  German  people 
may  be  singled  out  by  God  to  be  the  means  of 
'once  again'  defeating  the  destructive  anti-Chris- 
tian tendencies  of  the  age,  and,  in  virtue  of  His 
having  entrusted  them  above  others  with  His  pure 
Gospel,  carrying  on  the  course  of  the  mission  to 
its  consummation.  So  much  is  certain,  that  God 
is  planning  to  do  something  with  us." — "Our 
people  are  inspired  by  the  thought  that  they  are 
called  upon  to  play  a  special  part  in  the  decisive 
battle  between  light  and  darkness,  and  by  the  hope 
of  then  standing  on  the  side  of  light."  And  from 
all  this  the  writer  draws  the  conclusion  that  the 
preaching  of  the  advent  of  the  Lord  is  not  only 
a  fundamental  and  essential  part  of  Christianity, 
but  is  also  genuinely  German. 

In  the  report  of  an  address  by  another  German 
theological  professor,  in  the  Berliner  Lokalan- 
zeiger  for  November  13,  19 14,  we  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

"But  the  deepest  and  most  thought-inspiring 
result  of  the  war  is  'the  German  God.'  Not  the 
national  God,  such  as  the  lower  nations  worship, 
but  'our  God'  who  is  not  ashamed  of  belonging 
to  us,  the  peculiar  acquirement  of  our  heart.  Max 
Lenz  has  already  testified  to  the  revelation  of  the 
'German  God,'  and  Luther's  hymn,  'Ein'  feste 
Burg  ist  unser  Gott,'  merely  expresses  the  same 
idea  in  other  words." 

I  will  now  proceed  to  substantiate  my  state- 
ments in  detail  by  quotations  from  German  war 
sermons. 


CHAPTER  V 

H.    FRANCKE 

THE  author  of  these  "war  sermons"  is  a  pas- 
tor in  Liegnitz.  The  book1  is  ornamented 
with  the  Iron  Cross,  and  published  at  the  request 
of  numerous  members  of  his  flock. 

The  keynote  of  the  first  sermon  is  that,  now 
that  the  critical  hour  of  the  German  people  has 
come,  it  is  meet  to  seek  for  strength  in  the  light 
of  the  critical  hour  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
The  preacher  proceeds: 

"We  could  draw  many  instructive  parallels;  we 
could  say  that  as  Jesus  was  treated,  so  also  have 
the  German  people  been  treated.  Quietly  and 
strenuously  they  have  done  their  duty,  complied 
with  the  will  of  God  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge, 
and  as  far  as  it  was  humanly  possible.  They 
have  worked  not  only  for  themselves  and  their 
own  welfare,  but  for  the  welfare  of  mankind,  for 
its  moral  and  religious  progress — they  have 
worked  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
on  earth.  Ideal  aims  have  always  been  more 
highly  valued  by  the  Germans — at  any  rate  by  the 
best  among  them — than  earthly  gains.  And  what 
thanks  have  they  received  from  the  people,  to 
1  H.  Francke:  Kriegs-Predigten,  19 14. 
63 


64       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

whom  they  had  ungrudgingly  given  their  best? 
They  suddenly  liken  the  German  nation  to  Beel- 
zebub!  It  is  declared  to  have  incited  and  pre- 
cipitated the  war,  it  is  charged  with  having  shame- 
lessly assaulted  peaceful  neighbours.  And  yet 
they  all  know  perfectly  well  how  good-natured  and 
peace-loving  the  German  Michel  has  been.  They 
thought  they  had  lulled  him  to  slumber  with  their 
hypocritical  songs  of  peace;  and  when  once  he  was 
soundly  asleep,  they  would  all  fall  upon  him  and 
murder  him.  And  the  saddest  thing  was  that  even 
in  our  own  German  house,  there  were  many 
brethren  who  sided  with  our  hypocritically  peace- 
loving  opponents.  Well,  we  knew  we  were  in 
good  company  when  we  were  thus  slandered.  Our 
Master  had  been  called  Beelzebub,  why  should 
His  imperfect  disciples  be  better  treated? " 

"But  what  is  the  will  of  God  in  this  war? 
Much  of  it  is  clear  beyond  all  question:  To  hire 
assassins  and  murder  princes  is  not  His  will.  Nor 
is  it  His  will  to  help  assassins  and  protect  them 
from  their  well-deserved  punishment.  Nor  can 
it  be  His  will  to  deceive  a  trusting  friend,  and 
afterwards  try  to  thrust  a  poisoned  dagger  in  his 
heart,  whilst  one  says  to  him,  'Give  peace!'  To 
murder  men  because  their  honesty  and  ability 
stand  in  one's  way,  because  their  work  is  better 
than  one's  own,  and  their  reward  consequently 
greater — that  is  not  the  will  of  God  either.  But 
that  is  the  will  of  the — oh,  so  pious — Briton!" 

"One  thing,  I  think,  is  clear!  God  must  stand 
on  our  side.  We  fight  for  right  and  truth,  for 
Kultur,  and  civilisation,  and  human  progress,  and 
true  Christianity,  against  untruthfulness  and  hy 


H.  FRANCKE  65 


pocrisy  and  falseness,  and  un-Kultur  and  barba- 
rism and  brutality.  All  human  blessings,  ay  and 
humanity  itself,  stand  under  the  protection  of  our 
bright  weapons." 

The  sermon  ends  with  the  prediction,  that 
when  the  army  returns  decked  with  laurels,  then 
will  be  fulfilled  what  the  Psalmist  sang  centuries 
ago,  "Mercy  and  truth  are  met  together;  right- 
eousness and  peace  have  kissed  each  other." 

The  next  sermon  is  an  indictment  of  the  enemies 
of  Germany: 

From  the  East  the  Russian  threatens  us,  the 
representative  of  un-Kultur,  uncivilisation,  nom- 
inally a  Christian,  yet  the  lowest  of  idol-worship- 
pers, steeped  in  superstition.  Light  and  mental 
culture  are  his  abomination.  Injustice  and  bloody 
deeds  of  violence  are  his  life-element,  agreements 
and  constitutions,  solemnly  sworn  to,  have  no  sig- 
nificance for  him;  he  is  stained  with  blood  from 
top  to  toe.  One  only  fears  him  for  his  coarse  and 
brutal  numbers,  filled  as  he  is  with  a  low  hatred 
of  all*  Germanism,  just  as  the  half-savage  strives 
to  hate  and  annihilate  whoever  is  morally  de- 
veloped. 

With  him  sides  in  a  natural  union  the  French- 
man— his  complete  antithesis.  Over-cultivated, 
degenerate,  godless,  frivolous.  United  with  the 
Russian  only  in  a  common  hatred.  And  what  is 
the  reason  of  this?  Wounded  vanity.  Our 
fathers  defended  themselves  against  an  insolent 
assault,  and  victoriously  carried  the  war  into  his 


66      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

own  land.  His  hollow  sense  of  honour  cannot 
forget  this,  and  that  is  why  the  so-called  'great 
nation'  shrieks  for  revenge.  In  order  to  avenge 
himself  he  has  stirred  up  the  nations  against  us. 

And  as  the  third  in  this  alliance  the  Briton  falls 
upon  us,  he  who  is  proverbially  perfidious,  faith- 
less. He  is  certainly  connected  with  us  by  blood, 
and  ought  to  stand  with  us  on  the  defensive  against 
Gallic  rottenness  and  Slavic  brutality.  He  is  also 
a  Protestant  like  ourselves,  and  pretends  to  be 
so  pious,  so  pious!  And  in  spite  of  this  he  is  our 
enemy — and  why?  Oh,  it  is  quite  simple.  He 
hopes  to  do  better  business  when  the  German 
cousin,  with  his  inconvenient  industry  and  ability, 
has  been  annihilated,  etc.,  etc. 

The  next  sermon  contains  a  passage  which  ap- 
parently forms  a  strange  contrast  to  the  usual 
insistence  upon  Germany's  great  moral  purity  and 
acceptability  to  God.  When  it  is  their  cue  to 
dilate  upon  the  marvellous  effects  of  the  war  upon 
the  German  people,  these  clergymen  paint  the 
state  of  affairs  before  the  war  in  extremely  dark 
colours,  apparently  without  realising  the  contra- 
diction to  which  they  commit  themselves.  This 
phenomenon  we  shall  often  encounter,  and  I  shall 
by  and  by  make  some  comments  upon  it. 

"We  were  not  as  the  Almighty  would  wish  His 
people  to  be;  we  were  not  pleasing  to  Him. 
Superficiality  prevailed  in  wide  circles;  we  had  a 
weakness  for  tinsel,  and  were  taken  up  with  vain 
and  empty  things,  so  that  any  friend  of  the  nation 


H.  FRANCKE  67 


could  not  but  look  forward  with  apprehension  to 
whatever  serious  trials  God  might  have  in  store 
for  us.  Eternal  blessings  were  no  longer  thought 
of,  or  were  thrust  into  the  background  in  favour 
of  temporal  things.  The  service  of  Mammon 
seemed  to  have  become  all-important."  [Com- 
pare this  with  the  description  of  England!]  ''To 
this  was  added  the  miserable  division  of  our 
people  into  parties  and  grades,  into  castes  and 
classes."  But  when  the  war  came  all  this  rotten 
hollowness  disappeared! 

Then  the  preacher  belauds  the  German  Empire, 
envied  by  enemies  in  East  and  West.  Even  the 
Poles  and  the  French  in  Alsace-Lorraine  have 
now  seen  how  glorious  it  is: 

"Germany  is  precisely — who  would  venture  to 
deny  it? — the  representative  of  the  highest  moral- 
ity, of  the  purest  humanity,  of  the  most  chastened 
Christianity.  He,  therefore,  who  fights  for  its 
maintenance,  its  victory,  fights  for  the  highest 
blessings  of  humanity  itself,  and  for  human  prog- 
ress. Its  defeat,  its  decline,  would  mean  a  fall- 
ing-back to  the  worst  barbarism."  After  which 
he  praises  the  Emperor  for  his  love  of  peace. 

In  another  sermon,  filled  with  the  jubilation  of 
victory,  he  enlarges  on  the  confirmation  which 
events  have  brought  to  the  message  of  a  psalm, 
constantly  sung  during  the  war,  to  the  effect  that 
God  does  not  allow  the  good  to  be  trodden  under 
foot  by  the  wicked.     Then  he  explains  how  the 


68       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


German  nation  has  always  fought  for  truth  and 
freedom : 

"They  envy  us  our  freedom,  our  power  to  do 
our  work  in  peace,  to  excel  in  virtue  of  ability,  to 
fulfil  our  appointed  task  for  the  good  of  the 
world  and  humanity,  to  heal  the  world  by  the 
German  nature,  to  become  a  blessing  to  the  people 
of  the  earth.  Wherever  the  German  spirit  ob- 
tains supremacy,  there  freedom  also  prevails. 
And  have  not  our  enemies  to  fall  back  upon  lies 
and  venomous  calumnies  in  the  endeavour  to  jus- 
tify their  assault  in  the  world's  eyes  and  their  own? 
Does  this  not  prove  that  the  truth,  too,  is  with 
us?  Truth  and  freedom,  those  two  great  bless- 
ings, are  in  our  Gospel  promised  by  the  Lord 
Himself." 

"Here  we  come  upon  the  old  intimate  kinship 
between  the  essence  of  Christianity  and  of  Ger- 
manism. Because  of  their  close  spiritual  rela- 
tionship, therefore,  Christianity  must  find  its 
fairest  flower  in  the  German  mind.  Therefore 
we  have  a  right  to  say:  'Our  German  Christian- 
ity— the  most  perfect,  the  most  pure.'  The  joy 
of  seeking  the  truth  and  of  being  free  has  always 
been  the  highest  joy  to  Germans."  He  goes  ori 
to  enlarge  upon  the  theme  that  "Love  of  truth  and 
craving  for  freedom  are  virtues  as  German  as 
they  are  Christian."  I  cannot  quote  his  reason- 
ing in  its  entirety,  but  I  append  a  portion  of  it: 

"Truth,  faithfulness,  and  reliability  are  our 
strong  points  in  the  race  of  the  nations.  That  is 
why  the  German  merchant  goes  ahead  of  the 
others,  and  why  they  envy  us  our  success  in  this 


H.  FRANCKE  69 


peaceful  contest.  Thus  these  virtues  are  the 
cause  of  their  forcing  upon  us  a  bloody  war.  But 
God  be  praised,  it  is  also  these  virtues  which  give 
us  our  good  conscience,  and  allow  us  to  say  with 
confidence :  'God  with  us  and  we  with  God.  We 
shall  hold  the  field.'  " 

"And  we  do  not  fight  for  ourselves  alone.  When 
we  fight  for  victory,  we  fight  in  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity and  Christianity.  It  has  always  been  Ger- 
man nature,  in  its  mysterious  craving  for  truth, 
to  penetrate  through  all  the  dust  which  centuries 
have  gathered  upon  the  image  of  our  Saviour,  and 
His  pure  and  genuine  human  personality.  Ger- 
man craving  for  truth  and  German  strength  of 
faith,  working  along  Biblical  paths,  have  attained 
to  the  true  faith,  the  pure  religiousness,  whose  first 
and  greatest  spokesman  is  Jesus  Christ.  Thus 
the  Germans  are  the  very  nearest  to  the  Lord, 
and  may  claim  for  themselves  that  they  have 
'continued  in  His  word.'  Thus  German  Chris- 
tianity represents  the  right  relation  between  Christ 
and  His  disciples,  and  our  nature  the  most  perfect 
consummation  of  Christianity  as  a  whole.  We 
fight,  then,  not  only  for  our  land  and  our  people; 
no,  for  humanity  in  its  most  mature  form  of  de- 
velopment; in  a  word,  for  Christianity  as  against 
degeneration  and  barbarism.  Therefore,  as  surely 
as  the  history  of  mankind  moves  onward  and  not 
backward,  and  truth  is  higher  than  lies  and  hypoc- 
risy, God  must  be  with  us,  and  victory  ours.  This 
is  guaranteed  us  by  the  truth  of  our  nature,  which 
is  as  German  as  it  is  Christian." 


In  his  last  sermon,  delivered  on  September  6th, 


o      HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


the  preacher  reaches  the  zenith  of  victorious  jubi- 
lation. Pictorial  rings  through  it  all.  In  the  roar 
of  the  battle,  in  the  thunder  of  the  cannon,  the 
Lord  God  has  spoken,  and  His  words  were :  "My 
German  people  shall  live  I" 

"But  have  not  the  other  nations,  our  enemies, 
done  the  same?  Have  not  their  great  men  all, 
with  solemn  gestures,  invoked  the  'Lord  of  Hosts' 
and  prayed  for  victory?  Certainly,  all  except  the 
yellow  Japs — our  noblest  enemies,  who  are  hea- 
thens and  have  acted  accordingly — they  are  all 
Christians  in  name.  But  we  know  that  the  name 
matters  nothing,  and  that  gestures  matter  nothing; 
if  these  things  are  all,  they  are  but  froth  and 
fraud.  Jesus  has  said:  'Where  your  treasure  is, 
there  will  your  heart  be  also.'  But  where  our 
heart  is,  there  is  our  God  or  our  idol.  'Above  all 
things  to  fear,  love,  and  depend  upon  God,'  that 
means^  according  to  Luther,  to  have  a  God.  Is 
the  living  God,  the  God  whom  one  can  only  have 
and  understand  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  He 
the  God  of  those  others?  No,  they  serve  at  best 
Satan,  the  father  of  lies!" 

With  this  stupendous  "at  best"  I  will  conclude 
my  extracts  from  these  sermons.  He  goes  on  to 
describe  once  more  the  vices  of  the  enemy  and 
adds,  "How  utterly  different  it  was  with  us !  Such 
shortcomings  as  we  had  vanished  like  dew  before 
the  sun,  at  the  coming  of  the  war."  But  it  would 
be  superfluous  to  repeat  all  this. 

In  a  poem  by  Gustav  Schuler  it  is  written  of  the 
German  people: 


H.  FRANCKE  71 


"Dost  thou  fear,  thou  little  flock?  Thou  wilt 
triumph,  thine  is  the  earth.  Thou  art  in  God  and 
hast  conquered,  thou  wilt  overcome  the  world, 
and  wilt  kindle  a  streaming  fire  that  shall  flow 
over  all  mountains." 


CHAPTER  VI 

W.    LEHMANN 

WALTER  LEHMANN  is  the  Pastor  of 
Hamberge  in  Holstein.  He  has  preached  a 
series  of  sermons  which  he  has  published  under 
the  title:  About  the  German  God.  The  book  is 
ornamented  with  the  Iron  Cross.1 

Apparently  taking  it  for  granted  that  all  Ger- 
mans, as  such,  are  pious,  he  speaks  in  his  first 
sermon  as  follows : 

"We  know — do  we  not? — that  it  is  a  peculiar- 
ity of  the  German  that  he  requires  a  moral  found- 
ation, an  intellectual  justification,  for  his  actions. 
He  is  not  content  to  say:  'The  Kaiser  calls,  I 
come.'  No,  he  must  stand  spotless  in  his  own 
eyes,  in  the  sight  of  his  conscience. Other- 
wise he  would  be  a  mere  tool,  and  he  cannot  and 
will  not  be  anybody's  tool  but  God's.  But  when 
we  are  at  one  with  God  and  with  our  conscience, 
then  our  action  is  endowed  with  superhuman 
strength.  We  therefore  ask  each  other  in  this 
decisive  hour:  Does  our  conscience,  the  God  of 
our  soul,  go  forth  with  us  in  this  fight?" 

He  is  not  long  in  giving  to  this  question  the 

1  W.  Lehmann:  Vom  deutschen  Gott.     1915. 

72 


W.  LEHMANN  73 

following  conclusive  answer:  "Our  motive  is  not 
a  desire  for  power,  nor  for  expansion  of  frontier, 
nor  is  it  any  selfish  interest;  our  cause  is  that  of 
morality  against  immorality,  of  righteousness 
against  frivolity,  arrogance,  and  envy,  of  truth 
against  falsehood  and  cunning.  —  —  This 
means  that  we  go  forth  to  war  as  Christians,  pre- 
cisely as  Christians,  as  we  Germans  understand 
Christianity;  it  means  that  we  have  God  on  our 

side. Thus  we  can  say:  With  God  will  we 

go  about  our  work!  Can  the  Russians,  the 
French,  the  Serbians,  the  English  say  this?  No, 
not  one  of  them;  only  we  Germans  can  say  it." 

The  Germans  are  ready:  "The  pedantic  and 
bureaucratic  love  of  order,  carried  to  its  furthest 
extreme,  the  conscientiousness  and  accuracy 
which  are  the  soul  of  our  authorities  from  the 
very  highest  to  the  lowest  (which  we  have  often, 
no  doubt,  laughed  at  and  grumbled  at)  will  now 
brilliantly  stand  the  test  and  reveal  themselves  as 
the  creative  principles  of  a  wonderful  organic 
work  of  art:  the  consummation  and  development 
of  the  German  spiritual  and  bodily  national 
strength." 

In  a  sermon  of  August  9th  he  speculates  as  to 
The  Motives  of  our  Enemies.  Why  have  they 
banded  themselves  together?  "Because  Germany 
is  too  great  and  mighty,  too  strong  and  flourish- 
ing, too  pure  and  moral,  too  sound  and  unassail- 
able, too  industrious  and  aspiring,  too  deep  and 
rich,  too  inwardly  and  spiritually  fertile ." 

"Germany  is  now  about  to  become,  mentally 
and  morally,  the  first  nation  in  the  world.  The 
German  nation  leads  in  the  domains  of  Kultur, 


74       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

science,   intelligence,  morality,   art,  and  religion, 

in  the  entire  domain  of  the  inner  life. The 

world  shall  once  again  be  healed  by  the  German 
spirit:  that  shall  be  no  empty  phrase  for  us.  All 
the  deep  things:  courage,  patriotism,  faithfulness, 
moral  purity,  conscience,  the  sense  of  duty,  activity 
on  a  moral  basis,  inward  riches,  intellect,  industry, 
and  so  forth  (  !) — no  other  nation  possesses  all 
these  things  in  such  high  perfection  as  we  do. 
And  because  it  is  so,  because  Germany  is  the 
leader  in  the  entire  domain  of  intellect,  character, 
and  soul — and  in  the  end  the  world's  judgment 
depends  on  these — because  Germany  is  thus  more 
and  more  becoming  the  centre  of  the  world,  there- 
fore our  neighbours  look  upon  us  askance,  and 
with  envy.  Thus  this  war  is  a  war  of  envy  and 
jealousy  of  Germany's  leadership.  It  is  a  fight 
of  hounds  against  a  noble  quarry." 

Referring  to  the  German  White  Book  and  the 
Chancellor's  speech,  he  depicts  the  conduct  of  the 
enemy  in  the  blackest  colours :  "Friends,  there 
are  things  so  shameless,  so  vile,  that  one's  heart 
quivers  with  anger.  Such  is  Slavic  cunning  in  all 
its  shamelessness;  and  our -old  enemy  beyond  the 
Rhine  is  no  better.  He  replies  evasively  to  our 
distinct  questions,  and,  treading  underfoot  all  in- 
ternational law,  all  moral  duty,  he  crosses  the 
frontier."  England  fishes  in  troubled  waters,  and 
is  the  real  kindler  of  the  world-conflagration. 
"Deceit  and  cunning  on  all  hands,  and  in  the 
midst  of  them  my  Germany,  pure,  honest,  and 
innocent  of  falsity." 

In  conclusion,  Pastor  Lehmann  once  more  in- 
sists that  God  is  on  the  side  of  Germany.     "If 


W.  LEHMANN  75 

God  is  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?  It  is 
enough  for  us  to  be  a  part  of  God." 

In  a  sermon  of  August  23rd  the  question  is 
put:  "Who  is  responsible:  the  crazy  murderer 
in  Serajevo,  the  weakling  in  character  and  will 
on  the  Russian  Imperial  throne,  the  criminal 
Grand  Dukes,  our  neighbours  on  both  sides,  or 
the  deceitful  islanders  ?  In  any  case  it  is  not  we  I" 
He  then  lauds  the  Fatherland,  the  mother-tongue 
— it  is  for  these  we  are  fighting,  and  "Germany  is 
the  future  of  humanity." 

"He  who  in  these  days  sets  forth  to  defend 
the  German  hearth,  sets  forth  in  a  holy  fight; 
he  sets  forth  to  a  great,  incomparable  Divine  Serv- 
ice, in  which,  indeed,  one  neither  prays  nor  sings, 
but  in  which  one  stakes  life  itself,  this  single, 
sweet,  beloved  life,  for  the  life  of  a  whole  nation, 
a  nation  which  is   God's   seed-corn  for   the  fu- 


ture." 


"But  the  thought  suddenly  strikes  us:  ought 
we,  from  a  Christian  and  pious  standpoint,  to  love 
our  Fatherland  above  all  else  in  the  world?" 
The  answer  is  yes,  and  it  is  based  upon  the  prin- 
ciple that  Germany  is  the  centre  of  God's  plans 
for  the  world.  "Therefore  we  assuredly  act  in 
the  very  spirit  of  the  Saviour  when  we,  in  right- 
eous war  against  deceit  and  immorality,  help  the 
people,  in  whom  we  believe,  forward  to  the  light 
and  the  sun." 

The  sermon  ends  thus:  "We  can — it  may 
sound  strange,  but  it  has  its  deep  meaning — we 
can  say:  We  love  our  earthly  Fatherland  so  much 
that  we  gladly  barter  our  heavenly  for  it." 

In  a  discourse,  also  delivered  on  August  23rd, 


76       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

the  preacher  begins  with  some  bitter  words  about 
Japan:  "We  are  for  a  moment  seized  with  fury: 
Japan  which,  from  a  military  point  of  view,  has 
been  entirely  educated  by  Germany,  whose  stu- 
dents were  kindly-received  guests  in  the  lecture- 
halls  of  our  high  schools  and  hospitals:  Japan, 
which  owes  us  everything  it  possesses  of  good  and 
genuine  and  serviceable  for  the  future — at  a  sign 
from  England,  or  from  its  own  impure  Mongolian 
heart,  forgets  all  this,  and  rises  against  its 
teacher." 

"Friends!  is  it  not  true?  Germany  has  never 
made  war  from  unclean,  immoral  motives !  I  look 
upon  it  as  absolutely  the  deepest  feature  of  the 
German  character,  this  passionate  love  of  right, 
of  justice,  of  morality.  This  is  something  which 
the  other  nations  have  not.  Germany  may  be 
vanquished,  it  may  be  crushed  to  earth,  but  it  can 
never  side  with  wrong  and  infamy." 

There  is  here  no  question  of  material  gain,  but 
of  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  that  is,  of  God 
Himself.  "It  might  come  to  pass  that  we  suc- 
cumbed in  this,  the  worst  and  perhaps  the  last 
fight  of  Germanism  against  the  whole  world,  of 
righteousness  and  purity  against  falsehood  and 
deceit.  That  could  only  happen,  I  am  sure,  over 
the  dead  body  of  the  last  German — but  should  it 
happen,  I  assert  that  we  should  all  die  happy  in 
the  consciousness  of  having  defended  God  against 
the  world.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  the  life 
or  death  of  the  individual,  but  of  the  eternal  ideas, 
of  God's  victory  over  all  demons  and  idolaters, 
of  all  that  will  live  even  in  death,  ay,  by  means 
of  death,  as  did  Christ  of  old." 


W.  LEHMANN  77 

Then  follows  a  lengthy  exposition  of  the  fact 
that  no  one  took  any  heed  of  Germany,  with  her 
pronounced  sense  of  truth,  purity,  and  right,  so 
long  as  she  was  only  an  insignificant  little  country; 
but  when  she  began  to  grow  powerful  (always,  be 
it  noted,  on  the  divine  foundation  of  truth,  right, 
purity,  and  conscientiousness)  she  had  to  be  pulled 
up.  England  was  the  first  to  discover  it.  In- 
stead of  carrying-through  the  great  world-mission 
jointly  with  Germany,  she  chose  to  fight  against 
Germany — she  chose  the  fight  against  truth,  pur- 
ity, and  right  which  it  is  our  lot  to  witness.  "Yet 
whither  do  our  thoughts  wander?  Friends,  you 
will  understand  and  approve  that  a  sermon,  in 
these  times,  should  wear  a  strange  political  as- 
pect." It  is  not  really  unsuitable  in  an  act  of  wor- 
ship "to  become  more  and  more  clearly  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  Germany's  fight  against  the  whole 
world  is  in  reality  the  battle  of  the  spirit  against 
the  whole  world's  infamy,  falsehood,  and  devilish 
cunning." 

"And  in  the  distance  we  see  a  Germany  emerge 
from  this  world-war,  compact  and  homogeneous, 
resting  on  her  own  foundations  more  firmly  and 
strongly  than  ever — a  Germany  which  will  be  left 
in  peace,  because  she  has  shown  that  a  whole 
world  cannot  prevail  against  her,  which  will  de- 
velop richly  and  luxuriantly  on  all  sides  and  in  all 
domains,  which  will  form  the  highest  peak  of  hu- 
manity, and  from  whose  fruitfulness  and  noble 
plenitude  the  whole  world  will  draw  its  nourish- 


78       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

ment.  Blessings  will  go  out  from  her  to  all 
lands."  He  then  reassures  himself  with  the 
thought  that,  in  the  fight  between  God  and  the 
world,  God  will  be  victorious  in  the  end. 

In  a  sermon  of  August  the  30th,  on  The  Bless- 
ings of  the  War,  he  is  first  jubilant  over  Germany's 
mighty  victories,  but  he  next  proceeds  to  describe 
the  terrors  of  war.  One  loses  one's  faith  in  hu- 
manity. "With  horror  one  sees  that  the  human 
race  stands  undeveloped  and  low  on  the  heavenly 
ladder  of  education  for  the  Kingdom  of  God,  that 
a  nation  which  every  day  reads  her  Bible,  and 
which  keeps  her  Sunday  holy  beyond  all  others, 
that  this  nation,  prompted  by  the  lowest  and  mean- 
est motives,  by  envy,  jealousy,  and  selfishness, 
drenches  all  mankind  in  blood  and  death,  while 
she  herself  keeps  in  the  background,  scornfully 
smiling,  and  gleefully  watching  the  nations,  at  her 
instigation,  tearing  each  other  to  pieces." 

But  when  the  good  effects  of  the  war  have  to 
be  enlarged  upon,  one  again  sees  how  a  dark  back- 
ground has  to  be  provided  as  a  set-off.  If  the 
German  nation  were  already  so  very  angelic,  the 
war  could  bring  it  no  blessings.  Therefore  the 
preacher  describes  how  everything  in  Germany 
turned  upon  the  selfish  profit  of  each  individual. 
To  be  sure,  he  makes  the  reservation  that  "this 
does  not  imply  that  we  tried  to  promote  our  in- 
terests by  impure  means.  On  the  contrary,  we 
were  on  the  whole  a  straightforward  and  honest 
nation,  but  we  were  straightforward  and  honest 
because  it  was  to  our  advantage  to  be  so."     But 


W.  LEHMANN  79 

then    came    the    war   and    swept    away    this    last 
shadow  from  German  honesty. 

In  a  discourse  on  Sedan  Day,  September  2nd, 
our  preacher  naturally  rises  to  lofty  heights.  Once 
again  German  soldiers  are  treading  the  soil  of 
places  rendered  famous  by  the  war  of  1870-71. 
"Once  again  German  soldiers  lie  at  St.  Quentin, 
preparing,  quietly  and  confidently,  for  the  march 
on  Paris.  God  writes,  indeed,  a  wonderful  world- 
history." 

"Yes,  but  so  it  is,  my  friends:  that  glorious 
feat-of-arms  forty-four  years  ago  gives  us  courage 
to  believe  that  the  German  soul  is  the  world's  soul, 
that  God  and  Germany  belong  to  one  another." 

"We  are  beginning  slowly,  humbly,  and  yet  with 
deep  gladness,  to  divine  God's  inte~tions.  It  has 
a  proud  ring,  my  friends,  but  we  are  conscious  that 
it  is  also  in  all  humbleness  that  we  say:  the  Ger- 
man soul  is  God's  soul;  it  shall  and  will  rule  over 
mankind.  In  the  same  way  as  God  is  wont  to 
rule :  without  outward  force,  without  compulsion, 
with  an  inward,  invisible  strength,  with  purity, 
truth,  righteousness,  love." 

However,  our  preacher  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
victory  in  the  last  war  had  not  yet  given  Germany 
everything — not  the  full,  inward  unity.  And  the 
long  period  of  peace  had  not  brought  about  the 
necessary  inner  deepening.  We  must  now  do  pen- 
ance. 

"We  are  now  living  through  a  time  from  which 
we  look  for  the  greatest,  and  deepest,  and  most 


80       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

sacred  effects:  not  only  a  victory  for  the  German 
arms  over  un-Kultur,  blind  passion  and  mammon- 
worship,  but  a  new  birth  of  the  German  nation,  so 
that  it  may  become  the  nation  which  fills  the  earth 
with  God." 

"Germany  is  our  existence,  our  faith,  the  mean- 
ing and  depth  of  the  world." 

In  a  sermon  of  September  6th,  the  momentary 
thought  crops  up  that  when  the  war  is  over  and 
there  is  time  for  calmer  contemplation,  "we  may, 
perhaps,  see  that  we  ourselves  are  not  without 
fault,  are  not  blameless."  But  this  thought  is 
promptly  thrust  aside :  "So  victorious,  so  full  of 
confidence,  so  firmly  reliant  upon  the  superiority 
of  Germanism,  have  we  never  been  before.  There 
is  not  one  among  our  soldiers,  not  one  among 
those  who  remain  at  home,  who  has  any  doubt  of 
Germany's  victory  and  superiority.  Four  weeks 
after  the  declaration  of  war,  our  regiments  of  cav- 
alry are  swarming  in  front  of  the  enemy's  capital, 
and  a  hundred  thousand  Russian  prisoners  are  in 
our  hands.  It  is  something  so  unheard  of,  so  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  the  world,  that  one 
could  easily  understand  that  such  gigantic  results 
might  make  us  presumptuous."  But  they  are  not 
presumptuous,  oh  dear,  no !  They  are  not  such 
braggarts  as  their  enemies,  who  said  such  big 
things  about  their  entrance  into  Berlin.  The  Ger- 
man nation  has  risen  as  one  man  to  fight  the  im- 
mense fight  against  intrigues  and  infamy.  "And, 
friends,  I  say  again  to-day:  if  we  should  be  van- 
quished in  this  war,  if  un-Kultur,  falsehood,  and 
a  huckstering  spirit  were  to  obtain  the  mastery 
over  us,  if  we  were  to  be  humbled  by  the  perfidious 


W.  LEHMANN  81 

instigator  of  this  war — by  England — may  we  not 
say,  my  friends,  that  life  would  no  longer  be  worth 
living,  and  that  we  would  rather  die  and  disappear 
from  this  earth?" 

In  a  discourse  of  September  13th,  on  National 
Religion,  the  preacher  enlarges  upon  the  fact  that 
during  the  war  the  Bible  has  been  endued  with 
new  life  for  the  Germans.  More  especially  the 
Old  Testament,  which  does  not  deal  with  the  indi- 
vidual, but  with  the  people.  We  now  understand 
"the  enormous  value  of  a  national  religion."  Read 
Isaiah,  and  apply  what  he  says  to  the  German 
nation.  "Our  religion  will,"  of  course,  "always 
seek  out  the  individual,  even  in  Russian,  English, 
and  French  countries,  and  will  never  be  led  away 
to  contest  the  truth  of  the  individual  man's  rela- 
tion to  his  God,  even  in  hostile  countries.  But  it 
is  different  with  the  nations.  When  we  read 
Isaiah,  we  see  that  it  is  no  foolish  overvaluation 
of  ourselves,  no  aggressive  arrogance,  no  want 
of  humility,  when  we  more  and  more  let  Bis- 
marck's faith  prevail  within  us,  that  God  has 
taken  the  German  nation  under  His  special  care, 
or  in  any  case  has  some  special  purpose  in  view 
for  it.  Not  that  we  look  upon  ourselves  as  God's 
chosen  people — God  seeks  out  His  invisible  people 
from  all  nations — but  the  faith  of  Arndt  and 
Fichte,  of  Schiller  and  Bismarck,  is  also  ours:  the 
eye  of  God  rests  upon  the  German  people."  Of 
course,  it  is  not  meant  by  this  that  Germany  will 
ever  outwardly  rule  the  world — that  it  will,  for 
instance,  annex  land  in  Europe.  No;  it  is  only 
by  the  heart,  by  the  spirit,  by  humanity,  con- 
science, thoughtfulness  and  love — in  short,  by  the 


82       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

German  nature,  by  the  German  God,  that  it  wants 
to  gladden,  and  ennoble,  and  solace  the  world. 
"It  is  our  great,  radiant  hope  that  Germany  will 
become  the  heart  of  the  world."  Such  a  nation 
must  be  equipped  with  morality  and  piety,  and 
Germany  is  so  fortunate  as  to  possess  both  these 
qualities.  "Only  a  moral  and  pious  people  can 
be  the  heart  of  the  world.  Never  will  a  nation  in 
which  the  sense  of  duty  is  lacking,  in  which  fraud 
and  theft  are  the  order  of  the  day  (as  in  Russia), 
or  a  nation  in  which  frivolity  and  lack,  of  earnest- 
ness and  depth  of  character  prevail  (as  in 
France),  or  a  nation  in  which  the  greed  of  money 
and  the  shopkeeper  spirit  suppress  all  nobler  mo- 
tives of  action  (as  in  England),  or  a  nation  in 
which  treachery  and  cowardice  permeate  politics 
(as  in  Japan),  or  a  nation  in  which  unbridled 
passion  and  want  of  reverence  agitate  the  people 
(as  in  Serbia)- — never  will  such  a  nation  be  able 
to  elevate  mankind  by  inward  strength  and  depth 
of  soul."  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  there  are  short- 
comings in  individuals  within  the  German  nation; 
but,  in  the  first  place,  the  German  nation  is  the 
only  one  that  stands  morally  spotless  in  this  war, 
and,  secondly,  there  are  certain  great  virtues 
which  particularly  characterise  it,  such  as  faithful- 
ness, devotion  to  duty,  self-sacrifice.  As  the  poet 
has  said: 

Deutsch  sein  heisst  gut  sein, 
treu  sein  und  edit, 
kampfen    fur    Freiheit, 
Wahrheit  und   Recht.1 

1  "To  be  German  means  to  be  good,  to  be  true  and 
genuine,  to  fight  for  freedom,  truth,  and  right." 


W.  LEHMANN  83 

And  then  its  piety.  "It  is  characterised  by  a 
fine  and  strong  humility.  We  all,  at  the  present 
time,  from  the  Kaiser  to  the  common  soldier,  feel 
that  He  must  be  with  us  who  is  stronger  than  the 
world.  We  want  only  to  be  His  arms,  His 
hands."  It  is  thus  that  the  German  nation  has  set 
forth:  "Its  loins  are  girded  with  righteousness, 
and  its  thighs  with  faith.  God  will  be  with  it, 
and  victoriously  will  it  return." 

In  conclusion,  we  are  offered  a  very  clear  con- 
ception of  the  "German  God" :  "God  is  nothing 
but  our  moral  activity,  our  honest  and  just  deal- 
ings, the  ultimate  and  deepest  motive  of  our  life- 
struggle.  God  lives  in  our  hearts.  And  all  our 
prayers  are  a  deep  and  confident  faith  in  the  vic- 
tory of  the  eternal  and  divine  order  of  things. 
Thus  victory  is  achieved  by  a  nation  from  whose 
soul  the  prayer  incessantly  arises,  pure  and  pious, 
humble  and  trustful:  'God  is  our  help!'  Ay, 
verily,  God  as  the  last,  the  deepest,  the  inmost 
foundation  of  our  soul,  as  the  purity  and  truth 
in  our  feelings,  as  the  righteousness  and  honesty 
in  our  actions,  as  the  moral  necessity  of  our  strug- 
gle, that  God,  as  in  this  war  only  we  Germans  can 
possess  Him,  that  German  God  is  our  best  and 
strongest  help." 

He  further  enlarges  upon  this  subject  in  the  fol- 
lowing sermon,  from  which  I  must  therefore  give 
one  or  two  extracts.  It  bears  the  title :  World 
Religion,  National  Faith,  Individual  Piety.  Here 
we  are  told  that,  if  we  are  not  to  despair,  we  must 
see  in  this  war  the  instrument  of  Providence  for 


84       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

the  creation  of  new  and  greater  values  in  place 
of  those  that  are  destroyed. 

"We  have,  therefore,  all  seen  with  deep  joy, 
that  this  war,  particularly  among  us  Germans — 
and  on  us  Germans  the  eye  of  God,  we  take  it, 
must  especially  rest:  we  must  be  His  ultimate  pur- 
pose— that  particularly  among  us  this  war  has 
called  to  life  beautiful  and  wonderful  things.  Our 
unity,  our  self-reliance,  our  energy,  our  spirit  of 
sacrifice,  our  devotion  to  duty,  our  faithfulness 
unto  death,  our  springing  into  bloom  like  a  flower 
in  one  night,  our  overwhelming  strength,  our  new 
valuation  of  life,  our  clearness — I  cannot  name  all 
these  wonderful  things,  but  they  are  things  which, 
unless  they  are  the  fruits  of  a  passing  exaltation, 
possess  an  immense  importance  for  the  future  of 
Germany  and  of  the  world." 

"Now  that  we  realise  how  all  our  neighbours, 
for  years,  for  decades,  deceitfully  and  hypocriti- 
cally, have  been  working  upon  the  net  which  they 
wished  to  throw  over  our  head,  whilst  we  in  un- 
suspecting confidence  distributed  peace  andhonest 
friendship  on  all  sides,  we  must  hail  with  joy  the 
fact  that  at  last  the  net  of  lies  and  the  hypocritical 
veil  have  been  torn  asunder.  Thus  does  the  war 
create  clearness  and  truth." 

He  then  explains  how  our  religion  manifests 
itself  in  three  concentric  circles:  as  world-religion, 
as  national  religion  and  as  individual  religion. 
The  war  has  created  clearness  in  all  three  re- 
spects. 


W.  LEHMANN  85 

Christianity,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  "the  Jesuan  belief 
in  God"  ( !)  aspires  to  be  the  world-religion.  We 
saw  with  joy  mission-stations  spring  up.  But  this 
aspiration  has  for  the  time  fallen  utterly  to  pieces. 
Missionary  work  is  destroyed,  and  that  is  the 
doing  of  pious,  Christian  England,  which,  without 
any  necessity,  has  carried  the  war  into  other  quar- 
ters of  the  globe.  "Russia,  the  Greek-orthodox 
country,  allies  herself  with  Roman  Catholic 
France  and  Protestant  England.  Protestant 
England  calls  in  the  aid  of  Mongolians,  and  Chris- 
tian France  incites  the  black  race  against  Chris- 
tians. Protestant  England  fights  against  Protes- 
tant Germany,  so  nearly  related  to  her  in  religion 
as  well  as  race."  We  do  not  abandon  hope,  but 
after  the  war  we  must  make  a  fresh  start. 

But  if  Christianity  has  fallen  to  pieces  as  a 
world-religion,  it  has,  on  the  other  hand,  mani- 
fested itself  so  much  the  more  powerfully  as  a 
national  religion,  to  wit,  in  German  piety.  This 
may  look  like  a  limitation. 

'Yet  just  on  this,  perhaps,  we  may  found  a 
daring  hope;  as  sure  as  Geibel's  conviction:  'By 
the  German  nature  shall  the  world  once  more  be 
healed'  has  now  been  marvellously  strengthened 
within  us  all,  and  perhaps  will  never  lose  its  hold 
of  us  again,  so  we  may  in  the  end  also  hope  that 
Christianity,  on  its  way  to  become  a  world-re- 
ligion, may  pass  through  the  German  nature  and 
blend  with  it,  in  order  to  conquer  the  world,  vic- 
torious and  pure,  as  it  once  before  set  forward, 


86       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

four  hundred  years  ago,  from  Germany  instead 
of  Palestine.  In  other  words,  our  hope  is  this, 
that  Germany  may  in  a  deeper  and  purer  spirit 
take  upon  herself  the  task  which  England  has  in- 
solently appropriated,  as  she  has  so  many  other 
things,  to  make  capital  out  of  it:  the  task,  that  is 
to  say,  of  filling  humanity  with  God."  At  any 
rate,  a  new  and  strong  and  beautiful  German 
piety  has  suddenly  sprung  into  bloom.  The  na- 
tional movement,  it  should  be  observed,  is  in  itself 
something  religious.  "Am  I  exaggerating  when 
I  say  that  we  feel  at  the  present  time,  when  lying, 
passion,  selfishness  prevail  around  us,  that  we  are 
actually  the  people  God  has  chosen  for  His  heirs, 
feel  ourselves  in  this  fight,  if  not  His  chosen  peo- 
ple, yet — in  all  humility — the  instrument  of  God. 
Thus  the  secret,  strong  well-spring  of  the  national 
movement  is  a  kind  of  German  piety.  The  God 
of  the  Germans  has  become  living.  This  God  is 
not,  perhaps,  altogether  orthodox  from  a  Chris- 
tian point  of  view,  He  does  not  belong  to  any 
definite  confession,  and  does  not  swear  by  any  dis- 
tinct dogma."  "Inasmuch  as  all  that  is  dogmatical 
and  confessional  becomes  of  secondary  im- 
portance, the  most  valuable  parts  of  Christianity, 
gathering  together  and  uniting,  remain  as  German 
religion.  To  realise  and  depict  it  in  all  its  depth 
and  strength  is  no  easy  matter.  The  most  val- 
uable features  of  Christianity  have  combined  with 
the  characteristics  of  Germanism,  and  become  a 
strong  and  firm  unity."  "This  German  piety 
is  not  quite  mature,  it  has  not  yet  been  thought 
out  in  all  its  depths  or  developed  all  its  intensity. 
There  are  still  many  serious  faults  and  weaknesses 


W.  LEHMANN  87 

to  be  overcome.  But  the  kernel  is  pure  and  good, 
and  contains  forces  which  justify  our  hope,  that 
it,  this  German  piety,  is  destined  to  further  the 
healing  of  humanity." 

At  the  close  there  is  a  quite  short  reference  to 
the  third  point:  the  future  of  the  individual  soul. 
"Only  when  you  feel  yourself  the  child  of  God 
can  you  believe  in  the  God  of  the  Germans,  who 
is  and  must  ever  be  the  Lord  of  the  world." 

After  a  harvest  sermon  which  affords  him  the 
opportunity  of  lauding  the  abundant  strength  of 
the  German  people,  he  winds  up  with  a  discourse 
on  "the  danger  of  hatred."  He  fully  admits  that 
Germans  are  filled  with  a  raging  hatred  of  the 
enemies  of  Germany,  especially  England.  They 
have  richly  deserved  it,  for  they  have  treated  us 
shamefully.  "Whilst  we  have  done  all  we  could 
to  preserve  peace,  they  have  for  years,  for  dec- 
ades, been  burrowing  and  toiling  with  cunning 
and  infamy,  not  disdaining  the  lowest  of  ma- 
noeuvres, to  rob  us  of  the  fruits  of  our  flourishing, 
peaceful  development.  Broken  promises  and  lies, 
cunning  and  treachery,  the  meanest  and  lowest 
vices  known  to  humanity,  have  been  the  means 
of  inflaming  our  rage,  our  hatred." 

It  is  undoubtedly  in  this  way  that  hatred  ex- 
presses itself,  and  thus  it  has  spoken  throughout 
the  book.  But  suddenly  he  pulls  up  in  the  face 
of  Christ's  commandment  that  we  should  love 
our  enemies,  and  he  becomes  a  little  abashed. 
"We  must  not  for  the  sake  of  our  Germanism 
renounce  our  Christianity.     For   [mark  the  rea- 


88       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

soning]  then  we  should  also  renounce  our  Ger- 
manism! For  the  deepest  and  noblest  charac- 
teristic of  Germanism  is  precisely  that  it  is  one 
with  the  deepest  and  noblest  characteristic  of 
Christianity."  But  whom,  then,  do  we  hate? 
Do  we  hate  the  industrious  French  vine-grower, 
or  the  certainly  superficial  and  frivolous  Parisian, 
etc.,  etc.  ?  No.  Do  we  hate  the  French  President, 
or  the  English  King?  No.  Not  even  Sir  Grey? 
No,  we  hate  no  single  individual.  But  our  author 
knows  where  to  draw  the  line!  We  hate  the 
infamy  and  baseness  which  come  to  light  in  them! 
And  verily,  ay,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  there 
hatred  is  justified.  We  do  not  wish  to  conquer 
anything:  with  no  outward  force,  without  a  trace 
of  violence,  by  dint  of  inward  strength  and  spirit- 
ual depth,  we  will  work  upon  humanity,  and  within 
humanity.  Far  from  our  thoughts  is  the  ambition 
of  England,  which  by  policy,  coercion,  and  vio- 
lence wants  to  make  the  world  English  (  ?  !) .  We 
will  let  every  people  retain  its  own  peculiarities 
[for  instance,  the  Poles  and  the  North-Slesvig- 
ers?];  is  it  not  precisely  our  foible  to  imitate 
others? 

The  book  ends  with  the  following  words: 
"The  nature  (JVesen)  of  Germanism  is  one  with 
the  nature  of  Christianity.  Thus  we  sum  up  our 
longing. 

"Oh,  that  the  German  God  may  permeate  the 
world;  oh,  that  eternal  victory  may  blossom  be- 
fore the  God  of  the  German  soul." 


W.  LEHMANN  89 

So  much  for  Herr  Walter  Lehmann.  Here 
we  have  one  of  the  most  pronounced  examples  of 
the  blending  of  Germanism  and  Christianity.  He 
goes  so  far  as  to  call  his  book:  About  the  German 
God.  He  shrinks,  indeed,  from  openly  calling  the 
Germans  God's  chosen  people;  but  this  is  a  verbal 
affectation.  He  calls  Germany  God's  soul  and 
God's  heir,  and  speaks  of  it  as  in  every  respect 
God's  favoured  nation,  which  alone  gives  meaning 
to  the  world.  But  he  does  not  actually  call  his 
countrymen  God's  chosen  people — no,  such  pre- 
sumption he  leaves  to  the  English ! 

But  how  are  such  sermons  viewed  in  Germany? 
I  have  seen  two  or  three  reviews  of  the  book,  and 
from  one  of  them  I  quote  the  following: 

"Lehmann,  with  deliberate  one-sidedness, 
places  the  German  God  in  the  centre:  his  view  is 
that,  since  the  present  day  has  shattered  all  idea 
of  a  world-religion,  even  of  Christianity  as  a 
world-religion,  we  must  consciously  fix  our  eyes 
upon  a  national  religion,  a  German  national  re- 
ligion. All  his  hope  and  striving  is  towards  trans- 
figured Germany,  the  great  and  glorious  Father- 
land, destined  to  become  a  people  of  the  soul,  the 
heart  of  the  world.  German  Christianity,  Ger- 
man soul — that  is  the  watchword  which  heralds 
the  dawn  of  a  new  age.  A  lofty  tone  prevails  in 
these  sermons;  it  is  the  spirit  of  a  second  Isaiah 
that  speaks  in  them.  There  is  no  suspicion  of 
nationalistic  malevolence  in  the  book;  one  dis- 
course is  especially  directed  against  hatred" 
(Professor  Niebergall). 


go       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

On  the  other  hand,  Professor  A.  Uckeley  (in 
Theologie  der  Gegenwart)  takes  a  different  view. 
The  title  of  the  book  displeases  him:  "There  is  a 
German  faith,  there  is  a  German  piety,  German 
fidelity,  German  courage,  in  contrast  to  Russian 
or  English,  but  there  is  no  national  God  for  the 
Germans."  He  declines  to  call  these  discourses 
sermons;  they  are  political  speeches,  in  many  cases 
far  from  bad;  but  they  are  not  God's  word  to  our 
time,  they  are  not  sermons.  It  does  one  good  to 
hear  a  single  word  of  protest;  bat — it  is  also  char- 
acteristic that  the  criticism  is  directed  mainly 
against  the  two  expressions:  the  "German  God," 
and  "sermons" — not  against  their  contents  or  ten- 
dencies. In  my  concluding  remarks  I  shall  deal 
further  with  the  question  of  the  "German  God." 
Meanwhile  I  continue  my  documentation. 


CHAPTER  VII 

K.    KONIG 

W/"E  will  now  take  Karl  Konig:  Six  War  Ser- 
*  *  mons.1  These,  for  a  change,  are  embel- 
lished with  a  representation  of  St.  George  killing 
the  Dragon.  Herr  Konig,  in  one  of  his  sermons, 
says: 

"Now  our  forefathers  rise  from  the  grave, 
Bliicher  returns,  Gneisenau  and  Moltke.  Beware, 
France !  Now  the  knights  of  the  German  Order 
are  once  more  in  the  saddle.  The  Great  Elector 
rises  from  his  grave,  and  the  great  Frederick  re- 
turns. Do  ye  not  remember,  ye  Slavs  and  Rus- 
sians, that  there  was  nothing  to  be  got  from  Ger- 
many but  German  blows!  And  you  over  there, 
beyond  the  Channel,  with  you  it  will  be  bitterest 
and  hardest  for  us  to  deal,  for  God's  will,  and 
the  will  of  our  common  blood,  ought  to  have 
bound  our  fates  together.  But  ye  have  severed 
the  bond,  and  now  we  shall  nowhere  fight  so  hotly 
and  so  furiously  as  against  you,  ye  liars !  And 
thou,  our  youthful  German  fleet,  our  Kaiser's 
child  and  dearest  son,  show  now  thy  mail-clad 
might  and  let  thy  lightnings  strike." 

'The  Kaiser  himself  has  summoned  us  to  this 

1  K.  Konig:  Seeks  Kriegspredigten.     1915. 

91 


92       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

day  of  penance,  but  we  do  our  penance  after  the 
German  fashion,  erect  and  serious.  We  know 
that  we  have  sinned  greatly  during  the  long,  beau- 
tiful, glorious  years  of  peace  .  .  .  but  to-day 
we,  nevertheless,  raise  our  heads,  serious  and  se- 
rene, for  whatever  there  has  been  of  guilt,  and 
however  great  it  has  been}  the  register  of  our  sins 
has  already  been  wiped  out,  and  those  who  have 
counted  upon  German  discord  and  German  slack- 
ness have  made  a  wrong  reckoning."  The  meet- 
ing of  the  Reichstag  which  voted  the  credits  for 
the  war  "was  the  right  day  of  penance  and  the 
right  act  of  penance." 

Once  again  the  shout  goes  forth:  "Forward 
to  Paris!  We  must  vanquish  at  whatever  cost! 
We  must  vanquish — not  only  for  our  own  sakes, 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  our  women  and  children 
and  our  unborn  children's  children — we  must  van- 
quish because  the  downfall  of  Germanism  will 
mean  the  downfall  of  humanity.  Who  would  take 
up  the  German  heritage?  [Then  follows  a  string 
of  insults  to  the  enemy.]  Ay,  it  would  be  the 
direst  disaster  that  could  befall  our  old  Europe,  if 
Muscovites  and  Latins,  aided  by  perfidious  Eng- 
land, should  crush  the  German  spirit." 

"It  is  not  only  our  existence  that  is  at  stake,  it 
is  a  question  of  the  rise  or  decline  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  Europe.  We  all  know  that,  from  the 
workman  to  the  Kaiser.  And  the  consciousness  of 
serving  the  cause  of  humanity  in  serving  our 
country  gives  us  a  good,  pure  conscience,  and 
thereby  irresistible  strength  and  power."  "Who 
can  have  faith  in  victory?  Assuredly  he  alone 
who  desires  peace  and  the  progress  of  humanity 


K.  KONIG  93 


in  morality  and  Kultur,  in  strength,  spirit  and  life. 
Now  we  can  all  declare  before  God:  Just  this  and 
nothing  else  was  the  guiding  will  within  us,  as  a 
nation  and  as  a  State." 

"He  among  you  who  falls,  he  too  belongs  to 
God  and  has  given  his  life  for  the  highest." 

From  the  next  sermon,  August  9th :  "And  now 
thousands  fling  themselves,  heedless  of  death,  into 
the  cannon's  mouth,  against  the  crackling  rifles, 
over  barbed  wire  and  mines.  Liege !  thou  must 
first  be  ours,  thee  must  we  have,  because  necessity 
demands  it!" 

"Have  not  thousands  upon  thousands  of  wheels 
suddenly  come  to  a  standstill,  because  we,  who, 
with  the  strength  of  our  people,  have,  of  a  truth, 
not  only  worked  for  ourselves  but  for  the  whole 
world,  all  at  once  can  now  work  only  for  ourselves 
and  not  for  others!" 

He  has  beautiful  things  to  say  about  the  misery 
of  being  a  nation  in  thraldom.  We  Germans  will 
be  free.  "We  can  have  no  use  either  for  Russian 
knout  or  for  French  fool's  bauble.  We  are 
brought  up  in  the  spirit  of  Protestantism." 
"Therefore,  as  a  matter  of  course,  God  could  not 
hut  permit  the  war;  for  otherwise  something  much 
worse  would  have  happened,  namely — that  the 
noble  German  nation  would  have  had  to  let  itself 
be  dishonoured,  mewed  up  and  enthralled."  "We 
cannot  place  any  other  human  power  above  the 
Kaiser  and  the  Reichstag,  no  English  guardian, 
no  Russian  knout,  nor  any  French  top  hat." 

The  following  conclusion  is  particularly  inter- 
esting: "God  does  not  will  the  war,  but  He  wills 
that  we,  as  Germans,  shall  will  freedom,  because 


94       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

otherwise  we  cannot  fulfil  our  great  task  in  the 
service  of  mankind,  and  be  enabled  to  become  a 
source  of  light  and  love,  of  truth,  virtue  and  re- 
ligion. We  Germans  did  not  will  the  war,  but  we 
did  will  and  were  bound  to  will  freedom.  And 
because  they  would  not  let  us  have  it,  it  was  God's 
will  that  we  should  will  the  war.  And  thus  we 
carry  on  the  war  in  God's  cause,  in  the  cause  of 
mankind,  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  in  the  cause  of 
our  dear  great  Fatherland.  The  Fatherland  we 
thank  for  everything,  for  it  we  will  sacrifice  every- 
thing, with  it  we  stand  or  fall." 

The  sermon  of  August  16th  is  full  of  enthus- 
iasm for  "the  great  faithfulness"  .  .  .  "In  these 
days  we  for  the  first  time  realise  to  the  full  what 
it  means  to  be  Germans,  and  what  we  are  called 
upon  to  do.  We  feel  how  the  words  of  Jesus  now 
apply  to  us:  'For  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given, 
of  him  shall  much  be  required.'  "  "We  Germans 
are — I  say  this  in  all  pride  and  fully  conscious  of 
the  obligation  it  entails — we  Germans  are  a  nation 
most  richly  endowed  by  God."  The  fundamental 
characteristic  of  the  people  is  a  deep  sincerity. 
"The  Latin  world,  in  all  its  sayings,  doings,  ar- 
tistic creations,  parliamentary  speeches,  political 
agitations,  asks :  'How  does  it  sound,  what  effect 
has  it?'  But  the  Germanic  world  asks:  'How  do 
I  and  my  work  stand  before  myself,  before  my 
inward  judge,  before  my  conscience?'  Having 
discoursed  with  great  indignation  on  Bonaparte's 
"spies"  (spies,  of  course,  are  persons  whom  Ger- 
many would  never  think  of  employing)  he  says: 
"And  now  that  the  Russians  and  the  French,  and 
the  'noble'  English  to  boot,  wish  to  put  their  heel 


K.  KONIG  95 


on  our  neck  because  they  begrudge  us  material 
prosperity  and  outward  power,  these  three  clever 
calculators  will  find  themselves  out  in  their  reckon- 
ing, because  they  have  omitted  the  most  important 
item  in  the  account — namely,  that  we  Germans 
fight  for  more  than  they,  we  fight  not  only  for 
outward  prosperity  and  power,  but  also  for  our 
inward  world  and  its  freedom,  which  is  not  pos- 
sible without  outward  power,  independence,  and 
mastery." 

In  his  next  sermon  (August  23rd)  the  preacher 
pays  a  tribute  to  the  Germans'  love  of  truth.  "We 
will  leave  lying  to  the  French,  to  the  vain  poli- 
ticians on  the  Seine,  and  to  the  great  spider,  Eng- 
land, which  at  once  cut  the  wires  that  connected  us 
with  the  world,  and  is  now  able  to  spin  the  non- 
German  world  into  its  web  of  lies.  Spin  away: 
Germany's  iron  fist  will  know  how  to  tear  thy 
web  of  lies  asunder,  and  thy  moral  mantle  into 
the  bargain.  And  should'st  thou  ever  again  dare 
to  pose  in  the  world's  eyes  as  a  moral  preacher, 
every  one  will  laugh  in  thy  face." 

"My  friends,  when  England,  'Christian'  Eng- 
land, akin  to  us  in  blood,  was  so  shameless  in  her 
naked  egoism,  that  she  by  her  declaration  of  war 
would  rather  hand  us  over  to  Muscovites  and 
semi-Asiatics  than  contend  with  us,  in  honest 
peaceful  rivalry,  for  the  palm  of  Kultur,  it  struck 
a  hard  blow  to  our  soul,  and  all  our  wrath  and 
pride  rose  up  against  this  degenerate  cousin.  But 
when,  in  the  past  week,  the  last  and  the  worst 
thing  happened  which  could  happen,  when  Eng- 
land left  Kiautschau,  the  masterwork  of  our  Tir- 
pitz,  and  a  model  in  the  art  of  colonisation,  to 


96       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


the  mercy  of  the  Japanese,  then  she  overthrew  all 
that  remained  of  our  tottering  respect,  our  vanish- 
ing belief  in  her.  Such,  then,  is  the  spirit  of  Eng- 
lish statecraft!  No  trace  of  any  sense  of  respon- 
sibility towards  Germanism,  etc.,  etc."  "And  no 
one  will  ever  again  have  confidence  in  England, 
any  more  than  in  that  thief,  Japan,  her  noble  ac- 
complice in  robbery." 

German  victories  must  have  completely  crushed 
our  opponents'  confidence.  "Ye  poor  French 
people  who  have  only  been  driven  into  war  by 
your  ambitious  Paris  politicians!  Ye  poor  Rus- 
sians, hounded  on  by  the  Czar's  knout—what 
must  ye  be  feeling  now?  And  ye  Paris  politicians 
yourselves,  and  thou,  poor  weakling  on  the  throne 
of  the  Czars,  ye  who  are  but  the  fluttering  flies 
in  the  web  of  the  English  world-spider,  what  effect 
will  the  tidings  of  German  victories  have  upon 
you?  It  will  yet  cost  us  heavy  sacrifices  before 
we  are  able  to  chastise  thee  also,  England,  as  thou 
hast  deserved,  for  all  thy  sins  against  us  and 
against  Europe." 

In  one  sermon  he  thanks  God  that  the  Germans 
are  able  to  stand  forth  with  clean  hands  and  a 
good  conscience.  He  further  enlarges  upon  the 
well-known  furor  teutonicus  which  manifests  itself 
in  the  thunder  of  world-shaking  deeds,  and  upon 
faithfulness  as  the  most  luminous  trait  in  the  Ger- 
man character.  "Though  the  world  were  full 
of  devils,  German  faithfulness  would  master  them, 
for  it  belongs  to  God."  "All  that  punctuality, 
accuracy,  precision  at  which  foreign  countries 
have  so  often  jeered,  and  which  they  have  never 
rightly  understood,  is  nothing  more  than  a  further 


K.  KONIG  97 


development  of  the  spirit  of  German  faithful- 
ness." 

But  the  preacher  surpasses  himself  in  his  ser- 
mon of  August  30th.  "Four  victories  at  one  time, 
and  the  English,  too,  have  felt  the  first  German 
blow.  The  last  event  especially  came  as  a  mighty- 
relief,  for  whenever  closely-woven  webs  of  false- 
hood are  torn  asunder,  and  when  wrong-doing 
which  insolently  wears  the  mask  of  right  is  un- 
masked and  handed  over  to  condign  punishment, 
then  the  heart  draws  a  deep  breath  in  gratitude  to 
those  eternal  powers,  etc.,  etc."  The  whole  ser- 
mon turns  upon  England,  and  is  one  great  cry 
of  triumph  and  hatred.  "Our  gorge  rises  at  this 
people  which,  in  the  midst  of  this  tremendous 
battle  of  the  nations,  instigated  by  themselves, 
thinks  of  nothing  but  business,  business,  business !" 
But  now  judgment  is  sure  to  overtake  them.  The 
English  have  always  lacked  the  power  of  self- 
renewal  by  strenuous  labour,  have  always  stuck 
fast  in  set  forms,  and  thought  that  everything 
English  was  best,  even  their  cavalry  regiments! 
"Oh  yes,  as  long  as  they  had  only  to  contend 
against  Kaffirs  and  Indians!  But  now  their  fame 
has  already  been  buried  under  the  dust  of  France, 
buried  by  the  swords  of  German  cavalry!" 

Germany  is  likened  to  "a  young  giant"  who  cer- 
tainly kept  a  sharp  look-out  for  every  one  who 
thought  to  deprive  him  of  German  soil  or  to 
hmder  German  self-development,  but  who,  being 
by  nature  kindly  and  magnanimous,  nevertheless 
applied  all  his  immense  strength  to  peaceful  la- 
bour in  the  service  of  Kultur."  The  blame  rests 
entirely  with  England.    The  war  is  not  a  proof  of 


98       HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

England's  strength,  but  of  her  "moral  weakness 
and  religious  degeneracy."  But  now  we  have  Bel- 
gium and  will  soon — we  hope  to  God — have  dis- 
posed of  the  Russians  as  well.  Much  still  remains 
to  be  done.  Yet  something  like  a  presentiment 
of  a  turning-point  in  the  world's  history  passes 
through  our  souls,  and  we  Germans  must  and 
will  this  time  be  the  force  that  moves  the  world. 
It  must  and  will  be  we,  because  there  is  no  one 
else  who  can  lead  the  European  spirit  to  wider 
views  and  higher  moral  efforts. 

The  book  ends  with  a  sermon  of  September 
6th,  full  of  jubilation  over  "the  glorious  victory 
over  ten  army  corps  between  Rheims  and  Ver- 
dun." "Kaiser  and  Crown  Prince,  the  wearer 
of  the  crown  and  his  heir,  in  the  evening  sunshine 
on  the  field  of  victory  in  France!" 

He  enlarges  with  enthusiasm  upon  the  favour 
of  Heaven  in  providing  such  fine  weather  for  this 
spectacle,  and  upon  the  valour  of  the  army,  etc., 
etc. ;  and  then  follows  a  highly  interesting  exposi- 
tion: 

"Not  fear,  but  strength!  Since  the  days  of  the 
Morocco  affair,  the  most  painful  thing  for  us  who 
hold  Germany's  strength  and  greatness  to  be  a 
necessity  for  the  history  of  mankind,  was  the  fact 
that  the  inevitable  weakening  in  our  policy  at  th„t 
time — inevitable  because  our  fleet  was  not  yet 
ready,  because  the  Kaiser-Wilhelm  Canal  was  not 
yet  completed,  because  Heligoland  was  not  yet 
fully  fortified,  and  because  the  whole   Morocco 


K.  KONIG  99 


business  was  not  a  matter  for  the  sake  of  which 
the  conscience  of  our  people  would  have  approved 
a  war — the  fact  that  this  weakness  of  our  policy, 
to  which  necessity  compelled  us,  led  foreign  na- 
tions to  suspect  our  Kaiser  of  timidity.  William 
the  Timid!  Thus  they  mocked  in  France,  thus 
they  hissed  in  England,  and  the  Muscovites  rubbed 
their  hands  in  glee. 

"No  wonder  that  the  Gallic  cock  strutted  all  the 
more  proudly,  that  the  Grand  Dukes  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, thirsting  after  power,  the  more  openly 
clanked  their  sabres,  and  that  England  looked  on 
with  a  coldly  calculating  eye.  Those  who  have 
never  understood  the  nature  and  character  of  our 
German  people  mistook  conscientiousness  for  ti- 
midity, and  sense  of  responsibility  for  cowardice. 
But  it  is  one  of  the  great  divine 
dispensations  that  nations  whose  leading  classes 
have  cast  off  conscientiousness  and  sense  of  respon- 
sibility in  the  sacred  sense  of  these  words,  become 
blinded  by  their  lower  passions,  ambition,  and 
thirst  for  power  and  fame,  and  thus  call  down 
upon  themselves  that  judgment  for  which  they  are 
ripe,  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  world. 

"Must  we  not,  even  now,  be  thankful  that  Rus- 
sian thirst  for  power,  and  French  ambition,  fos- 
tered and  encouraged  by  English  egoism,  did  not 
let  the  shots  fired  at  Serajevo  lead  to  a  stern 
chastisement  of  Serbia,  as  moral  earnestness  de- 
manded, but  allowed  them  to  swell  into  the  thun- 
der rolling  through  this,  the  greatest  war  which 
has  ever  shaken  the  world.  Two  years  too  early 
for  our  enemies,  but  an  act  of  grace  from  God  for 
ourselves  and  our  allies!     For  now  we  have  the 


ioo     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

lead  in  the  iron  game  of  war;  and  though  England 
may  lurk  in  the  background,  waiting  for  her  turn 
in  the  game — so  be  it,  England; — we  know  exactly 
what  trumps  you  hold,  but  whether  you  know  ours, 
coming  days  will  show." 

This  declaration  that  Germany  was  unable  to 
go  to  war  earlier,  because  she  was  not  ready,  and 
that  it  was  providential  that  war  broke  out  at 
absolutely  the  most  favourable  moment  for  Ger- 
many, is  truly  imposing  in  its  grand  naivete.  This 
is  even  more  apparent  in  the  following  lines: 

"Our  German  power  shows  its  nature  precisely 
in  this,  that  it  can  wait  until  God,  through  its  con- 
science, commands:  'Now  is  the  time,  strike  and 
defend  thyself!'  The  time  had  not  come  in  the 
days  of  the  Morocco  episode.  But  it  has  come 
now,  and  German  power,  deliberate  and  calm, 
now  faces  a  world  of  foes.  Conscience  commands, 
and  then  there  is  neither  wavering  nor  political 
wrangling,  no  ambiguous  Anglicising,  no  ambig- 
uous Muscovitising,  but  one  thing  only:  Yes  or 
no,  and  German  blows,  German  power."  As  for 
fear,  "the  Germans  are  in  this  respect  naturally 
akin  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  who  always  placed  His 
'Fear  not' !  over  the  heads  of  His  followers — " 

I  think  the  reader  must  agree  with  me,  that 
neither  logic  nor  common  sense  is  the  strong  point 
of  these  "sermons."  I  will,  in  conclusion,  quote 
as  a  curiosity  a  sample  of  what  may  perhaps  be 
called  new-German  logic.     In  reply  to  the  charge 


K.  KONIG  101 


that  Germany  has  bombarded  unfortified  cities, 
such  as  London,  for  instance,  the  following  answer 
appeared  in  the  Evangelische-lutherische  Kirchen- 
zeitung,  Number  29,  1915  : 

"London  is  no  longer  by  any  means  an  unfort- 
ified city.  It  is  armed  with  such  quantities  of 
anti-aircraft  guns  and  aeroplanes  that  the  Zeppe- 
lins, as  is  well  known,  only  venture  to  attack  the 
city  by  night."  Perhaps  from  a  feeling  of  the 
insufficiency  of  this  reasoning  the  following  is 
added:  "London  is  the  hearth  and  the  heart  of 
this  terrible  world-war,  there  sit  the  ministers  who 
have  precipitated  Europe  into  misery,  there  is  the 
witch's  caldron,  in  which  fresh  misery  is  ever 
brewing  for  the  peoples  of  Europe,  already  bleed- 
ing from  a  thousand  wounds.  To  attack  London 
is  to  attack  the  den  of  the  murderers." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

J.    RUMP 

THE  fourth  preacher  I  will  introduce  is  Herr 
Pastor  Jon.  Rump,  lie.  Dr.  of  Berlin.  He 
published  a  pamphlet  entitled  War  Devotions  and 
Memorial  Services  for  the  Fallen,  which  appeared 
in  several  editions,  and  was  promptly  followed  by 
other  publications.  I  will  first  quote  a  criticism  of 
these  addresses,  by  the  same  Professor  Uckeley 
who  did  not  altogether  approve  of  Herr  Leh- 
mann's  sermons.     He  writes: 

"One  perceives  in  all  of  them  the  author's  pro- 
nounced poetic  gift,  which  makes  him  always  seek 
out  and  attain  nobility  of  expression,  in  forms 
which  appeal  very  strongly  to  one's  aesthetic  feel- 
ing. Naturally,  all  these  sermons  are  in  great 
measure  occupied  with  the  events  of  the  day;  the 
military  events  of  the  moment  determine  their 
contents.  They  help  the  hearer  to  deeper  reflec- 
tions upon  what  the  day  or  the  week  has  brought 
to  him  as  a  unit  in  his  nation;  their  primary  object 
is  to  comfort  where  there  is  woe,  and  to  exhort 
to  self-examination  where  false  security  and  undue 
superficiality  threaten  to  gain  the  upper  hand." 

Unqualified  approval,  you  see !  That  such  ser- 
mons should  be  reviewed  in  such  a  manner  has 

102 


J.  RUMP  103 


made  a  very  strong  impression  upon  me.      But 
the  reader  shall  judge  for  himself. 
In  the  first  sermon  Pastor  Rump  says: 

"Our  enemies,  in  an  unnatural  alliance,  have 
not  embarked  on  this  war  against  us  for  the  sake 
of  moral  ideas;  they  tread  all  morality,  as  well  as 
all  ethics  of  war,  under  foot,  just  as  they  would 
like  to  tread  us  under  foot.  They  not  only  want 
to  rob  us  of  our  future,  to  snatch  from  us  our 
present,  built  up  by  tireless  labour,  but  they  also 
stretch  out  their  unclean  grip  towards  our  past, 
and  want  to  expunge  it  from  the  history  of  man- 
kind (  !).  We  must  fight,  not  only  for  our  exist- 
ence as  a  nation,  but  also  for  all  the  treasures  of 
Kultur  which  the  German  race,  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  has  acquired  for  the  world's  good.  The 
German  Thought  in  the  World1  has  proved  its 
beneficent  might,  has  shown  what  it  means  to  go 
to  work  with  all  your  strength  in  the  name  and 
power  of  God.  They  want  to  sweep  it  from  their 
path,  in  the  interests  of  un-Kultur,  by  the  aid  of 
double-tongued  cunning,  with  the  poison  of  lying 
and  calumny,  with  the  superior  force  of  brute 
masses." — "We  will  use  our  David's  sling  in  such 
a  way  that  all  Goliath's  kin  shall  learn  not  to 
trouble  us  any  more,  and  their  slanderous  mouths 
shall  be  closed  for  ever." 

Then  follows  a  long  encomium  on  the  Kaiser, 
which  I  will  quote  to  show  what  can  be  said  in 
a  German  sermon  about  the  head  of  the  empire — 

1  The  title  of  a  comparatively  moderate  work  by  P. 
Rohrbach. 


io4     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

"We  all  of  us  thought  we  knew  him,  for  out  of 
his  heart  his  mouth  has  always  spoken,  and  he 
has  unveiled  to  the  world  the  very  pulses  of  his 
soul.  As  a  true  Israelite  without  guile,  in  the 
midst  of  an  untrustworthy  generation,  he  con- 
fronted the  respectful  gaze  of  his  people  and  of 
the  world.  We  have  but  partly  known  him.  This 
inner  greatness,  this  sun-clear  nobility  of  soul,  this 
German  straightforwardness  which  holds  out  to 
the  last  moment,  which  does  not  suspect  a  false 
friend  of  lying  or  fraud  until  he  unmasks  him- 
self— all  this  has  simply  vanquished  us.  To  such 
grandeur  has  William  the  Second  grown  before 
our  wondering  eyes,  that  we  felt  the  greatest  of 
the  Hohenzollerns  to  have  risen  again  in  him. 
In  one  point,  my  brethren,  he  exceeds  them  all — 
in  the  sense  of  his  responsibility  to  the  living  God, 
etc.,  etc.  He  has  buried  a  friendship  of  years,  has 
had  to  witness  in  what  an  un-German  manner  he 
has  been  cajoled  under  the  mask  of  a  supplicating, 
confiding  friend,  so  that  Russia  might  gain  time, 
like  a  beast  of  prey,  to  fall  upon  our  long,  unpro- 
tected frontiers ! Under  the  heaviest  his- 
torical responsibility  he  has  had  to  consider  how 
the  thousandfold  death,  with  which  our  dehuman- 
ised (entmenschte)  enemies  threaten  us,  as  far 
as  human  power  can  go,  may  be  staved  off  from 

our  borders. Thus  we  see,  and  thus  the 

world  sees,  our  Kaiser:  a  heroic  figure,  in  truth 
a  knight  by  the  grace  of  God,  both  King  and 
prophet,  Prince  and  servant,  not  only  the  general 
bent  upon  victory,  but  also  his  people's  prayerful 
house-priest."  He  ends  by  shouting  in  the  face 
of  Germany's  foes  the  words  of  David  to  Goliath: 


J.  RUMP 105 

"Ye  come  to  us  with  sword,  spear,  and  shield: 
but  we  come  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  the  God  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  whom  ye 
have  defied!" 

Having  thus  compared  Germany  with  little 
David,  the  unarmed  shepherd  boy  who  had  but 
a  stone  in  his  sling  (with  what,  then,  must  Belgium 
be  compared?),  he  exclaims  in  his  next  sermon: 

"World-history  will  write  in  letters  of  fire  these 
words:  The  Germans  conquered  with  their  God." 

"What  is  at  stake  for  us  in  this  struggle  is  the 
preservation  of  the  highest  blessings  which  God 
has  bestowed  upon  mankind."  "My  brethren! 
the  spectacle  we  are  witnessing  is  God  striding 
through  the  nations.  Him  they  have  challenged, 
against  His  Majesty  they  have  offended;  there- 
fore He  fights  for  us."  "It  is  unthinkable  that  a 
people  upon  whom  God,  not  fifty  years  ago,  be- 
stowed a  fervently  longed-for  unity,  should  now 
perish,  should  now  be  buried  under  un-Kultur  and 
barbarism,  should  be  wiped  of  the  roll  of  nations 
(!)  by  an  unscrupulous  huckster-spirit  and  a  per- 
jured lust  of  murder  (  !)." 

Yet  again  he  represents  Germany  as  a  new  Is- 
rael "under  the  protection  of  the  Highest." 

"Brethren  and  sisters!  in  a  moment  we,  the 
children  of  modern  humanity,  have  become  the 
heirs  of  Israel,  the  people  of  the  Old  Testament 
covenant.    We  shall  be  the  bearers  of  God's  prom- 


io6     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

ises,  the  living  proof  that  it  is  not  man  who  cre- 
ates history,  but  God  through  man."  All 
Germans  became  of  one  mind;  they  all  went  to 
church  at  the  bidding  of  the  Kaiser.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  God  that  is  at  work.  The  preacher  re- 
joices over  the  German  victories  in  France,  which 
are  far  greater  even  than  those  of  1870,  and 
exclaims:  "Where  in  the  whole  world  can  a 
people  be  found  who  have  such  cause  for  manly 
pride  as  we !  But  we  are  equally  far-removed 
from  presumption  and  arrogance!" 

"Against  us  stands  the  world's  greatest  sham 
of  a  nation,  whom,  with  German  good  nature,  we 
have  much  too  long  called  the  'English  cousin,' 
the  Carthaginians  of  the  North  Sea,  in  whom  we 
trusted  that  blood  would  have  proved  thicker  than 
water:  the  Judas  among  the  nations,  who  this 
time,  for  a  change,  betrays  Germanism  for 
thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Against  us  stands  sen- 
sual France,  the  harlot  amongst  the  peoples  (die 
Dime  under  den  Volkern),  to  be  bought  for  any 
prurient  excitement,  shameless,  unblushing,  im- 
pudent, and  cowardly  (!),  with  her  worthless 
myrmidons.  Against  us  stands  Russia,  inwardly, 
indeed,  rotten,  mouldering,  masking  its  diseases 
under  outbursts  of  brutality,  but  capable  of  em- 
ploying any  means,  devoid  of  all  feeling — not  dan- 
gerous of  herself,  but  becoming  a  menace  when 
leagued  with  others,  like  a  beast  raging  from  the 
fever  of  wounds,  deceitful,  never  to  be  trusted." 

What  a  description  of  Germany's  adversaries! 
And  in  a  sermon  to  boot !  No  wonder  that  he  con- 
tinues in  the  following  strain: 


J.  RUMP  107 


"Can  God  find  pleasure  in  our  opponents? 
France  denies  Him,  England  laughs  at  Him, 
Russia  forgets  Him.  Never  will  the  holy  God, 
Who  does  not  let  Himself  be  mocked,  never  will 
He  make  their  cause  His  own,  unless  we  compel 
Him  to — never!"  He  continues  to  urge  his  list- 
eners to  give  heed  to  God's  ways.  Then  he  de- 
picts for  them  Christ  on  Golgotha.  A  whole 
world  against  God's  Anointed.  And  in  Berlin, 
too,  at  one  time,  cries  were  uttered  against  Him 
at  mass-meetings.  Our  inhuman  foes  now  show 
whither  mankind  drifts  when  their  connection 
with  Him  has  been  severed.  And  alas!  (now 
comes  an  interesting  confession)  "even  now,  only 
three  weeks  after  the  outbreak  of  the  world-con- 
flagration, the  religious  movement  seems  to  be 
steadily  slackening  off."  People  are  again  for- 
getting God;  and  yet  everything  depends  upon  not 
turning  the  living  God  against  us.  "That  nation 
will  conquer  and  be  blessed  in  its  victory  which 
ensures  to  itself  the  aid  of  God."  We  must  from 
every  pulpit  cry  out  "Come  to  Jesus."  "A  Jesus- 
less  horde  (!),  a  crowd  of  the  Godless  (Gott- 
ferner)  are  in  the  field  against  us."  The  great 
thing  is  therefore  for  us  to  stand,  so  that  "God 
may  surround  us  with  His  protection,  like  a  cov- 
ering wall,  because  our  defeat  would  also  mean 
the  defeat  of  His  Son  in  humanity." 

In  a  sermon  upon  The  great  I  he  explains  how 
the  "great  I"  of  history  has  sided  with  the  Ger- 
mans: 

"Germany  shall  be  the  Israel  of  the  future. 
Henceforth  we  shall  fulfil  the  call  of  the  living 


108     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

God  in  the  world,  and  fight  for  Germany's  his- 
torical position  as  the  saviour  of  the  world."  "A 
corrupt  world,  fettered  in  monstrous  sin,  shall, 
by  the  will  of  God,  be  healed  by  the  German, 
nature.  That  is  why  this  war  is  being  waged,  the 
blessings  of  which  will  one  day  outweigh  all  its 
thousandfold  wounds  and  sacrifices.  Not,  my 
friends,  as  though  we  were  perfect  .  .  .  our 
nature  too,  however  pure  the  height  to  which 
inwardly  we  have  been  exalted,  still  (!)  shows 
grave    shortcomings.      But   these    can    and   shall 

vanish." Of  course  the  preacher  is  not 

blind  to  the  fact,  that  not  only  an  outer  equip- 
ment— there  the  German  people  are  all  right — 
but  also  an  inner  equipment  is  required.  But  he 
confidently  believes  that  the  time  is  net  far  distant 
when  these  words  will  be  applicable  to  the  Ger- 
man people :  "Ye  are  the  chosen  generation,  the 
royal  priesthood,  the  holy  nation,  the  peculiar 
people;  that  ye  should  show  forth  the  praises  of 
Him  who  hath  called  you  out  of  darkness  into  His 
marvellous  light." 

A  subsequent  sermon  gives  an  interesting  view 
of  the  serious  condition  of  the  spiritual  life  in 
Germany  before  the  war. 

"We  had  squandered  our  best  forces  and  de- 
sires upon  perishable  things,  the  temporal  had 
become  our  all-powerful  idol,  the  eternal  had  van- 
ished from  our  thoughts."  "We  had  entirely 
lost  ourselves  in  mechanical  realities,  and  forfeited 
all  insight  into  the  importance  of  spiritual  values." 


J.  RUMP  109 


Then  came  the  war,  and  all  that  was  wrong  at 
once  came  right. 

Let  me  also  put  on  record  the  following 
example  of  clerical  jubilation  over  victory: 

"Our  troops,  in  faithful  reliance  on  the  assist- 
ance of  their  God,  have  cheerfully  gone  forth  to 
the  unequal  fight,  and  have  won  battles  the  like  of 
which  history  has  never  yet  recorded.  Not  as 
incendiaries  and  highwaymen  have  they  pressed 
onwards,  or  have  they  gone  into  the  fight  as  beasts 
of  prey.  They  have  constantly  treated  the  van- 
quished foe  with  high-minded  humanity.  They  go 
jubilantly  into  the  fire,  sure  of  their  God,  relying 
upon  His  aid.  In  their  hearts,  on  their  lips,  in 
their  letters  from  the  front,  lives  the  belief  in 
His  grace  that  has  hitherto  shielded  them,  to- 
gether with  the  prayer  that  He  will  continue  to  do 
so  in  the  future.  What  a  difference  is  there  be- 
tween armies,  one  of  which  carries  its  God  in  its 
heart,  whilst  the  others  think  they  can  conquer  by 
the  weight  of  their  numbers,  by  cunning  tricks  of 
devilish  cruelty,  by  shameless  contempt  for  the 
provisions  of  international  law  (!) — this,  my 
brethren,  I  need  not  enlarge  upon:  the  war  we  are 
waging  writes  it  in  letters  of  fire  in  German  his- 
tory. Yea,  verily,  all  things  are  possible  for  him 
who  has  faith.  He  is  led  by  the  blessing  of  God. 
God  is  with  us;  guided  by  His  blessing  our  men 
do  deeds  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
world."  (  Of  the  Russians  we  are  told  that,  "while 
they  believe  themselves  to  be  on  a  victorious  on- 
ward march,  starvation  is  already  paralysing  the 


no     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

people,''  etc.,  etc.  "What  we  are  now  experi- 
encing of  God's  wonderful  leadership.  He  would 
fain  establish  as  an  heirloom  for  the  German  na- 
ture :en),  the  blessing  of  which  shall  alv 
burst  forth  afresh  from  beneath  ruins  and  tears, 
and  become  the  salvation,  not  only  of  ourselves, 
but  of  the  world  around  us." 

These  sermons  were  so  well  received  that  the 
author  made  up  his  mind  to  publish  a  new  series. 
They  follow  exactly  the  same  line  of  thought,  and 
marvellous  things  are  also  to  be  found  in  them. 
Take,  for  instance,  a  sermon  of  consolation  for 
the  fact  that  victories  are  not  quite  so  plentiful 
as  in  the  beginning: 

Already  the  mood  that  was  so  hopeful  and 
confider.:  seems  about  to  change."  A  landed  pro- 
prietor from  East  Prussia  complains  that  the  in- 
vasion of  the  Russians  has  thrown  him  fifty  years 
Downtrodden  are  the  waving  cornfields 
and  the  flowering  meadows,  the  subtle  fragrance 
of  which  has  hitherto  tempered  the  keen  East- 
Prussian  air.  He  then  goes  on  to  speak  about 
further  devastations  by  the   Rus^  But  the 

need  is  not  greater  than  the  help:  he  calls  upon 
his  hearers  to  seek  for  God.  liThe  future  of  our 
people  our  hearth  and  home,  our  land 

and  on  _rht  and  order.  ;.nd  truth, 

morality  and  faith.  What  happens  when  human 
nature  ill  conne:  n — where 

such  a  co _  bound  to  end — thi-  een  made 

paralleled  atroc  .  the  east- 


J.  RUMP  in 

em   part    of    our    Fatherland,    in    Belgium    and 
France.      [Needless   to   say  the  preacher 
alluding  to  the  Germans'  treatment  of  the  Bel- 
gians, but  vice  vers  God  cannot  mean  to  hand 
over  His  humar.  :    :    these  horde?."  etc.,  etc 

In  one  place  he  gives  the  following  account  oi 
the  history  of  the  war: 

"A  little  people  among  whom  regicide  has  al- 

g  of  the  meth    ..  s     :  polit- 
ical warfare,  deprive?  Austria        ass    -'nation  of 
her  -tic  hope  and  future,  by  causing  the  heir- 

.irent  and  his  consort  to  be  shot  down — not 
without   secret    aid  ......... 

ment  from  other  nat    as      !)      Austria   dc 

...  :iand  i  she  does  not 

mean  to  rec    .      .   her  position.     She   declares  re- 
[t  is  not  conquest  I   aim  at.  ex- 

_.--/.:..  i   -  my  future.'     I 
i's  secret     ...   s  .   her  t         -        :>- 

..   and  England  "betray  G 

gainst  the 
white    race   by   stirring  up   the   yellow   J.r.v.nese 

:inst  us.   etc,   et        "We  tho.:^::t  at   first   : 
we  had  c.  "om  the  narrc  lter- 

national    law.  our    troops 

through  Belgium,  in  violat  :r  neu: 

- 

but  here,  :  t  has  ved  that  wc 

been  preserved    :  ng."  he 

tes  the  it  :  ■ .  French,  tw 

.  rman  mobilisation,  had  thrown  a 
into  Namur  in  the   I 

n.    Therefon 


112     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

to  enter  Belgium.  For  it  is  the  duty  of  our  mili- 
tary leaders  to  protect  land  and  people  against  the 
wild-beast-like  lusts  of  confederated  hordes,  and 
not  to  wait  until  our  enemies,  by  dint  of  their  hell- 
nurtured  lies,  have  on  German  soil  plundered  Ger- 
man possessions,  and  made  a  wilderness  of  Ger- 
man territory.  The  Germans  are  guiltless,  "and 
from  all  sides  testimonies  are  flowing  in  as  to  the 
noble  manner  in  which  our  troops  conduct  the  war. 
Thus  this  war  affords  an  opportunity  of  showing 
the  world  how  Christians  defend  their  greatest 
blessings — as  the  disciples  of  eternal  love."  Hav- 
ing exalted  William  the  Second  as  standing  alone 
in  his  faithfulness,  he  declares  that  if  one  wishes 
to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  causes  of  this  war,  one 
must  go  back  into  the  past.  It  is  not  merely  a 
question  of  Germany's  or  England's  position  as 
a  world-power.  When  we  go  to  the  root  of  the 
matter,  we  find  that  quite  other  powers  are  in- 
volved. "The  kingdom  of  God  must  now  assert 
itself  against  the  kingdom  of  all  that  is  base,  evil, 
and  vile:  the  kingdom  of  light  against  the  king- 
dom of  darkness.  Against  a  world  of  superhu- 
man evil,  which,  as  in  the  beginning,  employs 
falsehood  and  murder  as  its  weapons,  the  power 
of  superhuman  justice,  truth,  and  love  goes  out 
to  battle.  The  fighting  armies  are  but  the  instru- 
ments of  these  contending  powers.  Only  blind- 
ness can  ask  who  will  be  victorious." 

Having  discoursed  upon  the  latest  German  vic- 
tories over  the  Russians  and  the  French,  he  en- 
larges upon  the  task  which  God,  by  means  of  these 
victories,  imposes  upon  the  German  people.  "The 
object  is   to  prepare   the   way   for   carrying  the 


J.  RUMP  113 


Gospel  to  the  nations  who  already  know  it,  with- 
out employing  it  for  their  salvation,  and  to  those 
who  have  not  yet  heard  the  message  of  God's 
eternal  love  !"  [Thus  not  only  to  the  heathen  and 
the  Jews,  but  to  the  other  Christian  nations.] 

In  another  place  the  same  thought  is  expressed 
somewhat  differently: 

"The  war  now  shows  the  elementary  revolt 
against  the  moral  idea  in  the  world.  We  fight — 
thanks  and  praise  be  to  God — for  the  cause  of 
Jesus  within  mankind." 

On  the  text  "If  God  is  for  us,  who  can  be 
against  us,"  he  contrives  to  deliver  a  wholly  po- 
litical oration,  which  contains  some  quite  interest- 
ing remarks. 

First,  an  introduction  full  of  big  words  about 
all  the  crushing  defeats  of  the  enemy.  Then 
follow  some  reflections  upon  the  happy  circum- 
stance of  the  war  breaking  out  exactly  at  the  right 
time  for  Germany,  and  on  the  fine  weather  God 
has  given  to  the  Germans  for  their  victories. 
Then  he  enlarges  on  the  moral  predominance  of 
the  Germans,  and  the  evil  conscience  of  the  enemy. 
He  asserts  that  the  French  soldiers  thought  they 
were  only  going  to  manoeuvres.  "Not  until  they 
were  face  to  face  with  the  enemy,  had  come  under 
the  fire  of  our  rifles,  and  seen  our  bayonets,  did 
they  find  out  that  they  had  been  deceived,  that 
they  had  been  lied  into  war."    But  we  have  a  good 


ii4    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

conscience,  even  more  so  than  in  1870!  For  then 
Bismarck  had  to  resort  to  the  "diplomatic  device" 
with  the  Ems  telegram;  but  this  time  everything 
is  straight  and  above-board  even  for  the  most  sen- 
sitive conscience.  Then  he  gives  a  review  of  Ger- 
man history  of  the  past  fifty  years,  to  show  that 
now,  too,  God  must  stand  on  the  side  of  the 
Germans. 

In  a  sermon  upon  Luther's  hymn,  "Ein'  feste 
Burg  ist  timer  Gott,"  he  strikes  at  the  beginning 
a  somewhat  peculiar  note: 

We  will  not,  like  our  opponents,  boast  of  our 
virtues !  We  know  that  God  resisteth  the  proud. 
Therefore  we  will  never  invent  for  ourselves  a 
stock  of  virtues  which  might  make  us  appear  more 
acceptable  to  God  than  our  enemies.  Amongst 
them,  too,  there  are  noble,  pious,  believing  souls 
who  curse  this  war,  and  honestly  condemn  the 
headstrong  unscrupulousness  of  those  who  pre- 
pared and  precipitated  it.  But — we  in  any  case 
are  innocent  in  this  war.  Our  noble  Kaiser,  etc., 
etc.  The  enemy,  indeed,  in  spite  of  all  their  moral 
shortcomings,  are  also  brave  [A  new  discovery: 
he  had  previously  declared  the  French  to  be 
cowards],  but  they  cannot,  like  our  troops,  say 
that  God  is  their  strength.  We  know  that  we  are 
fighting  for  God,  for  His  government  in  the  Euro- 
pean, the  Asiatic,  the  African  world  of  nations. 
England's  action  in  bringing  all  possible  complex- 
ions and  heathenisms  into  the  field  against  us  is 
a  sin  against  the  living  God  [Turkey  had  not 
then  come  in].     "What  we  have  to  secure  is  that 


J.  RUMP  115 


our  people,  in  the  future,  may  be  able  to  fulfil  the 
historic  mission  towards  mankind  which  God  has 
apportioned  them."  "It  will  be  our  task,  German 
brethren  and  sisters,  to  see  that  the  German  mis- 
sion to  the  world  shall  become,  more  convincingly 
and  more  completely  than  before,  the  revelation 
of  God  in  humanity.  Then  our  task  must  succeed, 
even  if  the  world  were  full  of  devils,  which  it  is 
not  yet,  my  beloved."  "With  us  shall  right  and 
morality,  truth  and  faithfulness,  win  the  fight 
against  wrong  and  baseness,  malice  and  falsehood. 
Through  our  supremacy  (Vorherrschaft),  which 
we  hope  will  be  the  outward  result  of  this  war, 
God  will  establish  His  dominion  over  the  many- 
coloured  throng  of  nations  who  stand  against  us. 
In  all  the  victories  He  grants  us,  He  is  preparing 
the  soil  for  us,  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  mission 
to  mankind.  As  heralds  of  His  will,  messengers 
of  His  word,  witnesses  of  His  benefactions  to  the 
world,  we  shall  take  up  our  work  after  the  war, 
and  with  German  endurance  and  German  industry, 
with  German  competence  and  German  faithful- 
ness, with  German  faith  and  German  piety,  we 
shall  permeate,  in  the  name  of  God,  a  world  which 
has  become  poor  and  desolate." 

Thus  ends  the  sermon  which  began  by  saying 
that  they  would  not,  like  their  opponents,  pre- 
sumptuously bestow  upon  themselves  imaginary 
virtues,  but  would,  on  the  contrary,  cultivate 
humility. 

He  finds  no  difficulty  in  placing  the  events  of 
the  war  in  a  strong  religious  light. 


n6    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

"When  our  submarine,  in  spite  of  an  almost 
overwhelming  superiority  of  force,  in  the  course 
of  sixty  minutes  sends  three  English  cruisers  to 
the  bottom,  without  suffering  any  hurt  itself,  this 
heroic  deed,  unparalleled  in  naval  history,  is  for 
Christian  people  a  testimony  from  the  Lord  on 
high,  'I  am  with  you!     Do  ye  see  it?'  " 

Whether  he  views  the  torpedoing  of  the  Lusi- 
tania  in  the  same  light,  I  do  not  know.  But  he 
continues : 

"Formerly  England  was  considered  by  the  non- 
Christian  world  the  most  Christian  nation.  We 
thought  there  were  numberless  believing  Christ- 
ians among  its  people,  and  yet  these  Christians 
are  silent  in  the  face  of  the  terrible  crime  of  this 
war.  They  allow  their  consciences,  though 
touched  by  the  spirit  of  God,  to  be  overpowered 
by  the  intense  feeling  of  nationality  which  is  pe- 
culiar to  the  Britons."  "What  must  the  Lord  on 
high  feel  when  He  looks  upon  these  Christians! 
Does  it  not  seem  as  if  the  figure  of  our  'suffering' 
Lord  would  never  disappear  from  the  life  of  man- 
kind? Can  Jesus  promise  these  English  Christ- 
ians His  sustaining  nearness?  Brethren,  let  Eng- 
land's guilt  be  the  means  of  making  us  penitent." 
"We  stand  facing  the  decisive  hour  for  Europe, 
nay,  we  must  even  say  for  Asia  and  Africa.  On 
Germany  which,  contrary  to  all  human  calculation, 
has  in  this  war  been  guided  to  victory,  the  Lord 
will  confer  the  duty  of  heralding  the  progress  of 
His  Kingdom  throughout  humanity.  On  the  paths 
of  commerce  and  intercourse,  we  shall  go  forth 


J.  RUMP  117 


to  all  nations,  and,  after  the  fierce  fight  is  over, 
carry  Jesus  to  them,  in  the  quiet,  peaceful  work 
of  a  true  Kultur.  England,  in  these  paths,  has 
lowered  herself  to  become  a  nation  of  hucksters, 
who  have  long  abandoned  the  service  of  God  for 
that  of  Mammon.  Let  England's  doings  be  a 
warning  to  us,  Christians!" 

Seldom,  I  think,  has  the  language  of  the  Phar- 
isee to  the  Publican  been  uttered  more  openly 
from  any  pulpit! 

In  a  sermon  to  soldiers  he  avers  that  "God  in 
heaven  looks  down  upon  you  German  men  and 
youths.  Ye  shall  be  his  warriors,  called  to  a 
costly  crusade  against  barbarism  and  cunning, 
bestiality  and  fraud."  "Verily,  my  brethren,  this, 
too,  is  a  religious  service.  Ye  are  the  armed 
priesthood  of  our  German  sanctuary.  It  is  more 
than  a  mere  figure  of  speech,  it  is  literal  truth, 
that  ye  are  not  only  fighting  'with  God,'  but  also 
'for  God.'  "  "What,  then,  is  the  fate  of  our  ad- 
versaries? It  is  their  breach  with  the  Living  God 
that  unnerves  and  weakens  them."  "Take  heed 
that  ye  be  counted  amongst  the  blessed,  who  show 
declining  England,  depraved  Belgium,  licentious 
France,  uncouth  Russia,  the  unconquerable  youth- 
ful power  and  manhood  of  the  German  people  in 
a  manner  never  to  be  forgotten."  "Brethren, 
make  an  end  of  this  generation  of  vipers  with 
German  blows  and  German  thrusts.  So  deal  with 
foes  who,  like  highwaymen,  have  set  upon  us, 
that  they  may  never  again  be  tempted  to  attack 
German  men,  and  make  German  soil  the  tavern 


n8     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

for  their  wild  drunkenness."  But  it  will  be  diffi- 
cult to  obey  the  commandment  of  Jesus,  "Love 
your  enemies."  "To  show  mercy  to  those  who 
have  piled  atrocities  upon  atrocities,  put  out  the 
eyes  of  our  wounded,  poured  boiling  oil  upon  our 
advancing  troops,  violated  our  defenceless  women, 
torn  apart  our  helpless  children,  slain  our  doctors, 
mutilated  our  dead — not  to  return  evil  for  evil 
when  they  have  fallen  into  our  hands,  but  to 
treat  as  human  beings  those  who  have  behaved 
worse  than  wild  beasts:  brethren,  this  requires  an 
inward  greatness  beyond  the  strength  of  human 
nature,  which  can  only  be  vouchsafed  from  on 
high." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  preacher,  by  his 
description  of  the  enemy,  does  not  make  it  any 
easier  for  his  listeners  to  show  mercy.  And  here 
again  we  come  upon  "the  daring  saying  which  we 
so  love  to  hear  and  to  repeat,  that  by  the  German 
nature  the  world  shall  some  day  be  healed." 

In  conclusion,  I  shall  only  quote  the  following 
extract  from  a  third  publication : 

"For  what  should  the  sons  of  France  be  en- 
thusiastic in  this  war?  They  really  do  not  know 
(  ! ) .  But  we  know.  We  fight  for  Kultur  and 
cult  (  !),  for  right  and  morals,  for  life  and  wel- 
fare. Rejoice,  my  brethren!  A  holy  mission  has 
been  entrusted  you,  so  holy  that  he  who  is  un- 
able to  go  forth  with  you  and  join  in  the  precious 
work,  seems  to  himself  as  an  outcast  from  decent 
society !     Verily,  it  has  long  been  an  honour  and 


J.  RUMP  119 


a  joy,  a  source  of  renown  and  of  happiness,  to  be 
a  German — the  year  19 14  has  made  it  a  title  of 
nobility.  What  Geibel  once  prophesied,  in  the 
distich  so  often  quoted,  now  can  and  shall  and 
must  at  last  become  a  reality  in  the  life  of  the 
nations,  that  by  the  German  nature,  that  nature 
blessed  by  the  grace  and  hallowed  by  the  spirit 
of  God,  shall  the  whole  world  be  healed.  Help 
in  this,  comrades!  Rejoice  in  the  call  to  make 
room,  by  means  of  German  courage  and  German 
thoroughness,  for  this  new  world  on  earth." 

These  words  are  to  be  found  in  a  sermon  for 
soldiers  on  the  text  2  Corinthians  xiii.  II.  But 
the  culminating  point  of  this  man's  preaching  is 
perhaps  reached  in  his  last  sermon,  on  the  text 
from  1  Maccabees  iii.  19-22,  a  text  he  has  chosen 
at  the  repeated  request  of  his  congregation!  In 
reference  to  this  passage  from  one  of  the  Apocry- 
phal books,  which  Protestants  do  not  recognise 
as  belonging  to  the  Bible  proper,  he  exclaims, 
in  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm  over  the  wonderful 
manner  in  which  the  Bible  adapts  itself  to  the 
Germans: 

"Verily  the  Bible  is  our  book.  Even  if,  for  a 
long  time,  we  did  not  value  it  as  such,  we  now 
acknowledge  that  it  was  given  and  assigned  to  us, 
and  we  read  in  it  the  original  text  of  our  destiny, 
which  proclaims  to  mankind  salvation  or  disaster 
— according  as  we  will  it !  God's  people  will  come 
forth  from  this  war  strengthened  and  crowned 
with  victory,  because  they  stand  on  the  side  of 


120     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

God;  but  all  God's  adversaries  will  find  out  that 
God  will  not  be  mocked,  and  that  He  rules  the 
history  of  the  nations  according  to  His  will." 

The  German  people,  in  this  incredible  utterance, 
are  plainly  characterised  as  God's  people,  and 
the  Bible  deliberately  announced  to  be  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Germans! 

,  It  is  these  sermons  with  which  the  reviewer, 
Prof.  Uckeley,  has  not  a  single  fault  to  find — nay, 
which  he  belauds.  And  they  have  been  widely 
read.  The  author  himself  says  in  the  preface 
to  the  third  publication,  that  "the  good  reception 
accorded  to  the  first  two  issues  is  the  reason  for 
the  publication  of  the  third;  the  first,  which  was 
for  long  out  of  print,  was  constantly  being  asked 
for  and  has  recently  been  reissued.  Hearers  and 
readers  of  the  sermons  have  enabled  me  to  send 
the  books  to  the  front,  where,  however,  there  are 
so  many  enquiries  for  them,  that  the  means  placed 
at  my  disposal  will  not  suffice  to  satisfy  all  appli- 
cations. A  colonel  has  asked  for  copies  for  twelve 
companies;  and  they  are  also  in  request  in  the 
military  hospitals." 

I  could  give  many  additional  extracts  from  such 
sermons,  but  to  the  four  preachers  already  men- 
tioned, I  shall  at  present  only  add  another  special 
group,  which  is  well  worthy  of  notice. 


CHAPTER  IX 

G.   TOLZIEN  AND    HIS    COLLEAGUES 

DEAN  TOLZIEN,  of  Schwerin,  together  with 
some  other  clergymen,  has  published  several 
pamphlets  under  the  title  Patriotic  Evangelical 
War  Lectures}  These  are  not  exactly  sermons, 
but  in  some  places  approach  very  nearly  to  an 
evangelical-national  confession  of  faith.  I  will 
quote  a  few  of  Tolzien's  utterances: 

In  a  speech  upon  My  German  Fatherland  he 
surveys  the  history  of  the  German  people.  He 
says  of  Luther:  "Just  because  Luther  was  the 
German  he  was,  he  was  the  Christian  he  was." 
He  admits,  indeed,  that  "We  know  nothing  of 
any  'God  of  the  Germans';  God  does  not  exist 
especially  for  the  German  people."  But  he  adds: 
"As  was  Israel  amongst  the  heathen,  so  is  Ger- 
many amongst  the  modern  nations — the  pious 
heart  of  Europe."  Therefore  he  is  all  the  more 
pained  that  the  half  of  Germany  is  Roman 
Catholic! 

When,  however,  he  begins  to  discourse  on  the 
Germany  of  the  present  day,  and  to  draw  com- 

1  Vaterlandische  evangelische  Kriegsvortrage,  vols,  i.-v., 

1915. 

121 


122     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

parisons  between  Germany  and  the  rest  of  the 
world,  we  find  in  him  the  same  colossal  conviction 
of  greatness,  the  same  contemptuous  hatred,  as 
in  the  rest. 

"English  Kultur  is  entirely  devoid  of  the  inner 
culture  of  the  heart.  It  has,  indeed,  always  been 
asserted  that  England  is  the  land  of  home  and 
foreign  missions.  It  must  remain  an  open  ques- 
tion whether  England's  foreign  missions  are  not 
exclusively  devoted  to  the  service  of  her  utterly 
selfish  colonisation.  But  it  would  be  strange 
if  there  were  no  home  mission  activity  in  a  country 
where  one-third  of  the  population  lives  in  the 
gutter."  "And  as  with  Kultur  so,  too,  with  poli- 
tics. Just  as  our  people  show  in  Kultur  their  great 
competence  and  ability,  so  they  show  in  politics 
their  great  honesty  and  conscientiousness.  But 
the  Englishman  regards  this  as  stupidity  and 
smiles  at  it.  He  takes  no  offence  at  the  dirtiest 
tricks  in  politics.  This,  however,  is  a  confusion 
oi  ideas,  inasmuch  as  those  who  deal  in  politics 
cannot  be  exempted  from  the  moral  law.  It  is  to 
the  honour  of  the  new  German  Empire,  that  its 
political  life  is  always  honest,  peace-loving,  al- 
together noble.  The  more  so  as  its  politics  are  very 
uncommon,  one  may  even  say  something  quite 
new  to  the  world." 

The  speaker  seems  ignorant  of  the  fact,  that 
it  is  precisely  in  Germany  that  the  loudest  voices 
have  been  raised  in  favour  of  the  theory  that 
ordinary   moral    laws    cannot   possibly   apply   to 


TOLZIEX  AND  COLLEAGUES      123 

politics.  Here  interest  must  take  precedence  of 
right.  Further,  he  maintains  that  Germany  has 
always  been  the  natural  soil  for  Christianit 
and,  intoxicated  by  the  glory  of  German  victories, 
he  declares  in  conclusion  that  the  world  shall 
belong  to  Germany. 

In  an  address  upon  the  world-politics  of  Eng- 
land, his  Anglophobia  indulges  in  the  voidest 
orgies. 

"It  was  England  that  laid  the  plans   for  the 

world-war. It  was  King  Edward  VII.  who 

did  it  all — a  man  whose  past  ought  to  have  taught 
him    to    keep    quiet.       A  political    card-sharper, 

though  with  good  abilities." He  travels  about 

and  concludes  his  agreements.  "The  dogs  are 
bought  and  trained  to  surround  the  den  of  the 
German  lion."  A  systematic  incitement  against 
Germany  is  organised  through  the  medium  of  the 
Press,  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  went  on  after 
the  death  of  the  King  in  19 10,  but  it  was  all  his 
work.  "What  we  are  now  reaping  are  the  poison- 
ous herbs  springing  up  from  King  Edward's 
grave,  'devil's-claw'  (henbane),  'water-pest' 
(water-thyme),  or  whatever  they  are  called." 

Next  he  enumerates  the  infamies  of  England, 
her  cruelty,  her  falseness,  her  misdeeds,  her  lies; 
I  am  sorry  space  will  not  allow  me  to  reproduce 
in  full  this  torrent  of  abuse.     But 

"We  hope  in  God.  God  will  one  day  over- 
throw the   arrogance   of  centuries.      We   depend 


124     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

upon  our  army  and  our  fleet.  An  old  prophecy 
says  that  in  the  year  1066  occurred  the  first  con- 
quest of  England  by  William  of  Normandy;  622 
years  later,  in  1688,  occurred  the  second,  by  Wil- 
liam of  Orange;  226  years  later,  in  1914*  the 
third  will  take  place,  under  a_  third  William." 
"Do  we  not  almost  daily  hear  it  stated  on  good 
authority  from  the  front,  that  French  officers, 
who  have  been  taken  prisoners,  express  their  wrath 
against  England,  and  even  say:  'Only  wait,  we 
will  soon  join  you  in  an  attack  on  England.' 
Still,  he  does  not  wish  to  add  fuel  to  the  fire  of 
hatred.  It  is  not  necessary  (!).  He  would 
rather  do  the  opposite  (  !).  But  it  is  England's 
"world-consciousness"  that  is  the  real  misery 
under  which  our  planet  groans.  "England  is  a 
Moloch  that  will  devour  everything,  a  vampire 
that  will  suck  tribute  from  all  the  veins  of  the 
earth,  a  monster  snake  encircling  the  whole 
Equator."  "To  tear  the  cruel  world-sceptre  out 
of  England's  hands  is  the  great  task  for  the  people 
of  the  earth.  It  is  the  world-judgment  which  must 
be  fulfilled  by  the  world's  history." 

But  hate  England — oh  dear  no,  one  would  not 
dream  of  such  a  thing! 

In  an  extremely  significant  speech  upon  "the 
suffering  in  the  Kaiser's  life,"  through  the  whole 
of  which  he  eulogises  the  Kaiser  as  a  holy  martyr, 
he  first  shows  what  suffering  it  must  have  been  to 
him  to  find  his  noble  intentions  so  often  mis- 
judged. On  this  subject,  I  will  quote  his  expres- 
sions verbatim: 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      125 


"Noble,  generous  souls  suffer  bitterly  when 
confronted  with  reserve  and  ill-will,  and  the 
nobler  they  are  the  more  bitterly.  When  that 
English  gentleman,  Minister  Grey,  who  has  a 
cancerous  tumour  in  place  of  a  heart,  in  the  end 
has  to  reap  the  infamy  he  deserves,  he  will  prompt- 
ly cast  it  from  him  as  dirt  {'Mist')  with  his  horse- 
hoof;  but  when  he  who  has  staked  everything  that 
is  noble,  beautiful  and  strong  within  him  on  cre- 
ating the  most  blessed  thing  in  the  world — he  who 
has  begged,  entreated,  conjured,  thrown  his  whole 
soul  into  the  effort — when  this  man  is  slighted, 
then  the  injury  plunges  like  a  poisonous  dagger, 
deep  into  his  heart." 

And  thus  the  Kaiser  stood  before  the  world. 
He  not  only  wished  to  make  this  own  people 
happy,  he  wished  to  make  the  world  happy,  as 
the  peace-Kaiser.  His  policy  towards  other  na- 
tions, even  the  small  ones,  was  really  too  noble 
for  this  world.  He  wanted  to  breathe  new  life 
into  the  masses  of  the  people,  he  wanted  the  kings 
on  their  thrones  to  form  a  league  of  brother- 
hood. But  (cries  the  preacher  in  italics)  :  "How 
have  they  not  disappointed  him!  How  have  they 
not  evilly  entreated  him!  How  have  they  not 
betrayed  him!"  All  of  them,  but  especially  Eng- 
land. 

"England!  England!  England!  She  deserves 
an  essay  all  to  herself.  England  is  the  Mephis- 
topheles  of  the  whole  tragedy.  Richard  the  Third 
could  never  have  been  anything  but  an  English- 
man, and  all  England  is  now  a  Richard  the  Third 
come  to  life  again."     He  then  reckons  up  Eng- 


126     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

land's  crimes:  "Is  there  anywhere  a  single  de- 
cent feature  to  be  found  in  the  English  mode  of 
warfare?"  England  has  betrayed  the  holy  cause 
of  Germanism  and  of  the  Gospel.  "It  is  certain 
that  if  Germany  falls  now,  then  the  Protestant 
Church  will  fall  with  her"  (  !).  England  enters 
into  a  league  with  dead  Greek  Christianity  and 
with  living  Japanese  heathendom.  Ay,  she  calls 
the  yellow  race  to  her  aid,  herself  yellow  with 
envy!  "Thus  England  has  torn  asunder  all  his- 
torical ties,  forgotten  all  historical  responsibilities; 
she  has  from  love  of  usury,  from  greed  of  gold, 
become  a  betrayer  of  blood,  a  fratricide,  a  priest 
of  Baal.  And  then,  to  crown  all,  she  has  had  the 
insolence  to  declare  war  upon  the  Kaiser — as  pro- 
tector of  outraged  national  rights,  as  the  noble 
guardian  of  downtrodden  little  Belgium !  If 
France,  then,  had  marched  through  Belgium, 
England  would  have  declared  war  upon  France? 
Does  any  one  believe  that?  A  nice  protector  of 
outraged  national  rights ! ! !  Thus  Richard,  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  appears  with  prayer-book  and 
rosary  on  the  terrace  of  the  castle,  thus  Mephis- 
topheles  dons  the  mask  of  lawyer  and  philosopher, 
thus  Iscariot  kisses  the  Saviour.  Is  there  any  one 
who  does  not  know  why  England  declared  war? 
Why?  As  Russia  from  greed  of  power,  as  France 
from  a  craving  for  revenge,  so  England  from 
jealousy.  From  shopkeeper-spite.  Because  she 
wanted  to  earn  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Eng- 
land the  perfidious,  the  infamous.  We  have  all 
determined  to  use  foreign  words  no  more,  but 
these  two  we  must  keep  for  England,  as  the  Ger- 
man language  has  had  no  occasion  to  coin  adjec- 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      127 

tives  which  could  adequately  characterise  the  con- 
duct of  England." 

He  also  delivers  an  address  on  The  Humility 
of  the  German — undoubtedly  a  rather  ticklish 
subject!  He  seems,  indeed,  to  have  had  an  ink- 
ling that  he  is  treading  on  dangerous  ground.  It 
is  true  that  God's  judgment  has  gone  forth :  "Ger- 
man righteousness,  German  ability  shall  conquer," 
but  it  might  possibly  come  to  pass  that  our  rap- 
ture of  victory  might  degenerate,  so  that  we  did 
not  continue  to  be  noble-minded,  but  became  ar- 
rogant like  the  English,  or  presumptuous  like 
the  French. 

That  must  not  be.  "Yet,  when  we  compare 
ourselves  with  other  nations,  the  comparison  is 
always  in  our  favour.  We  cultivate  a  noble  policy 
of  peace,  the  others  a  policy  of  greed,  revenge- 
fulness  and  intrigue,  right  down  to  the  naked 
shamelessness  of  Japan.  Our  faithfulness  to  our 
Ally  in  his  need  contrasts  with  England's  denial 
of  us — that  England  to  which  we  had  always  felt 
as  a  brother — and  with  Russia's  ingratitude — Rus- 
sia, to  whom  we  have  always  shown  friendship," 
etc.,  etc.  Yet  we  will  not  be  proud.  We  must  not 
apply  the  same  standards  to  ourselves  as  to  other 
nations.  Our  responsibility  is  greater.  "We  are 
Germans !  We  are  of  German  blood,  of  the  race 
of  faithfulness  and  honour,  the  people  of  poets 
and  thinkers.  What  does  the  song  say?  'We 
are  the  world's  noblemen!'  We  have  given  birth 
to  the  most  exalted  spirits.     We  have  been  edu- 


128     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

cated  by  Martin  Luther,  we  are  re-created  by  our 
Bismarck.  Luther's  gold  and  Goethe's  silver  and 
Bismarck's  iron,  those  are  our  ingredients." 

But,  like  all  other  people,  we,  too,  have  our 
sins.  They  are  certainly  not  so  bad  as  other 
people's,  but  they  are  there  all  the  same,  and  in 
some  few  respects  we  may  even  be  behind  others. 
But  we  must  make  a  sacred  resolution  of  amend- 
ment— the  times  urge  us  to  do  so.  He  then  con- 
cludes as  follows: 

"He  who  exalts  himself  shall  be  abased!  It 
almost  seems  as  if  this  saying  were  directly  applied 
to  the  English,  the  French,  and  the  Russians. 
For  they  have  all  commenced  the  game  in  the 
same  way,  by  exalting  themselves  in  the  thirst  for 
world-dominion.  He  who  abases  himself  shall 
be  exalted.  When  our  people  bend  to  the  stress 
of  the  time,  treat  affliction  as  penance,  and  derive 
amendment  from  chastening,  then  will  God  show 
grace  to  such  a  spirit,  and  give  it  victory.  Then 
will  be  fulfilled  the  prophecy: 

"  'By  the  German  nature  shall  (soil)  the  world 
be  healed.'  " 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  preacher  means  well, 
but  I  confess  I  find  it  no  easy  matter  to  discover 
the  humility  in  all  this.  Nor  does  he  succeed  in 
keeping  his  hatred  very  well  in  check.  In  an 
address  on  The  True  Unity  he  declares  that :  "the 
soldier  who  spat  in  the  face  of  the  thorn-crowned 
Saviour  did  not  act  more  shamelessly  than  does 
England  now." 

We  find  exactly  the  same  thoughts  in  the  ut- 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      129 

terances  of  Herr  Tolzien's  coadjutors.  Pastor  F. 
Erdmann  says,  in  a  discourse  on  The  Christianity 
of  the  Belligerent  Nations,  that : 

"The  war  has  shown  to  our  horror  that  the 
English  nation  as  a  whole  has  only  put  on  Chris- 
tianity as  a  mask,  behind  which  hides  the  real  face, 
making  grimaces  at  us."  "The  veil  has  now  fal- 
len and  the  perfect  Pharisee  stands  before  us 
in  the  form  of  England — British  arrogance, 
British  unscrupulousness,  British  lying  and  British 
huckstering."  The  famous  English  Sunday  was 
only  outward  show.  "The  much  lauded  mis- 
sionary spirit  was  only  a  business  enterprise,  by 
means  of  which  John  Bull  filled  his  purse,"  etc., 
etc. 

But  what  about  Germany!  Pastor  Erdmann 
has  first  to  make  the  unpleasant  admission,  that 
here,  also,  there  are  shortcomings.  But  he  gets 
over  the  difficulty  in  a  characteristic  way.  Ger- 
many cannot  be  said  to  be  entirely  free  from 
foreign  vices:  Russian  drunkenness,  Russian 
superstition,  the  corruptibility  of  Russian  officials; 
French  chauvinism,  French  immorality,  French 
frivolity;  English  mammon-worship,  English  un- 
truthfulness, English  love  of  pleasure!  But  the 
war  has  brought  about  a  moral-religious  revival 
among  the  German  people.  And  it  remains  true, 
after  all,  that  with  the  entrance  of  the  Teutons  in- 
to the  world  of  nations,  the  German  people  in  the 
German  empire  have  become  the  chief  maintainors 
of  Christianity. 

"We  will  not  presume  to  call  ourselves  proph- 
ets, but  we  can  and  must  take  note  of  the  will  of 


130     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


the  living  God  as  shown  in  world-history.  All 
signs  indicate  that  God  has  some  great  intention 
to  carry  out  through  our  predominantly  Protestant 
people,  that  they  still  have  a  great  work  to  ac- 
complish amongst  the  nations,  as  a  special  instru- 
ment for  the  fulfilment  of  His  will,  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  His  Kingdom  upon  earth.  Since  the 
re-foundation  of  the  German  empire,  it  has  begun 
on  an  increasing  scale  to  play  a  part  in  world- 
politics,  and  to  influence  the  fate  of  the  world. 
It  is  especially  this  that  has  begotten  the  pale 
envy  and  the  glowing  hate  of  our  adversaries  in 
the  present  war.  For  long  the  Protestant  nations 
have  held  the  highest  sway  in  the  world.  What 
a  glorious  prospect  will  open  out  for  Protestant 
thought,  as  soon  as  God  gives  the  victory  to  the 
German  arms  in  this  world-war,  and  German 
people,  having  won  the  first  place,  even 
among  the  Protestant  nations,  shall  recognise  and 
carry  through  its  mission  to  establish  the  Kingdom 
of  God. 

"Our  Kaiser  seems  long  ago  to  have  seen  this 
vision  with  prophetic  eye  and  worked  for  its 
realisation.  We  see  the  recognition  of  this  world- 
historic  task  shine  forth  in  the  well-known  picture 
with  the  legend:  'Nations  of  Europe,  guard  your 
holiest  possessions!'  German  people,  follow  this 
vision,  and  it  will,  like  the  morning  star,  herald 
the  dawn  of  a  new  world-day,  when  the  world 
shall  be  healed  by  the  German  nature." 

"The  German  people,  bearing  forward  in  vic- 
tory the  evangel  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  is  the 
great  Christophorus  in  the  world  of  the  na- 
tions." 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      131 


Herr  F.  F.  Meltzer,  preacher  at  the  cathedral 
of  Schwerin,  ends  a  discourse  on  The  Instigators 
of  the  War  with  the  following  words : 

"Woe  unto  thee,  perfidious  Albion,  with  thy 
politics  of  a  carrion  vulture  !  Woe  unto  thee,  who 
hast  on  thy  conscience  this  sea  of  blood  and  tears. 
Gott  strafe  England  and  help  the  right  to  victory." 

A  discourse  by  Herr  Pastor  Walter  Kittel  at 
Kieth,  on  The  World's  Hatred  of  Germany,  is 
quite  in  the  same  strain.  He  admits  the  fact  that 
Germany  has  become  pretty  nearly  odium  generis 
humani)  the  object  of  the  whole  world's  hatred. 
But  he  cannot  possibly  find  the  slightest  real  cause 
for  this  hatred.  It  is  only  distrust  and  envy. 
He  falls  back  upon  the  saying  that  when  a  man 
knows  that  he  has  acted  basely  and  meanly  towards 
some  one,  then  he  hates  him  because  he  feels  that 
he  has  a  bad  conscience  towards  him.  It  never 
seems  to  strike  Herr  Kittel  that  the  very  habit 
of  depreciating  other  nations,  often  in  very  abusive 
terms,  and  inordinately  belauding  Germanism, 
might  of  itself  be  sufficient  to  arouse  a  feeling  of 
dislike  in  others.  That  Germany  should  ever 
have  done  anything  for  which  she  could  be  justly 
blamed,  he  cannot  even  in  his  wildest  dreams 
imagine. 

Herr  Pastor  Goesch,  of  Gustrow,  delivers  a 
discourse  on  War  and  Kultur  in  which  he  calls  the 
enemies  of  Germany  "beasts  which,  three  to  one, 
set  upon  Germany,  because  of  their  money-grub- 


132     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

bing  spirit,  vengefulness  and  greed,"  and  winds 
up  with  this  solemn  vow : 

"We  Germans,  reviled  as  Huns  and  barbarians, 
having  through  the  war  been  taught  the  value  and 
benignant  power  of  our  Christian-German  Kultur, 
will  become  the  missionaries  of  Kultur  to  the 
people  of  the  earth.  As  a  nation  which  knows 
and  wills,  which  strives  and  achieves,  we  will 
conquer  that  place  in  the  sun  which  is  due  to  us, 
and  will  become  bearers  of  light  to  the  other  na- 
tions, so  that  their  eyes  may  be  opened  to  the 
deed  of  infamy,  the  Kultur-murder,  to  which  they 
have  stooped,  blinded  by  hatred  and  envy.  This 
German  war  against  the  whole  world  shall  break 
the  way  for  German  Kultur  to  the  whole  world!" 

To  which  he,  of  course,  adds : 

"Und   es   mag  am    deutschen    Wesen 
e'inmal  noch  die  Welt  genesertj' 

which  famous  quotation,  in  a  discourse  by  Herr 
Pastor  G.  Mau,  of  Schwerin,  at  last  evolves  into: 

"am  deutschen  Wesen  MUSS  die  Welt  genesen." 

In  other  words,  it  has  become  a  world-historic 
necessity. 

The  reader  may,  perhaps,  ask  why  I  have  dealt 
in  such  detail  with  these  German  sermons.  Might 
not  a  little  less  have  sufficed?  I  reply  once  more 
that,   if  I  had  only  quoted  some   detached  and 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      133 


isolated  fragments,  the  objection  would  have  been 
raised  that  I  had  singled  out  some  solitary,  ac- 
cidental examples  of  exaggerated  abuse,  and  I 
was,  above  all,  anxious  to  forestall  this  objection. 
It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  show  that,  not  only 
isolated  preachers,  but  whole  series  of  sermons 
by  numerous  preachers  were  stamped  throughout 
by  this  new-German  tendency  of  thought.  If  I 
am  further  asked  whether  it  be  not,  after  all,  a 
one-sided  selection  I  have  made  in  introducing 
precisely  these  writers,  my  reply  is,  that  it  might, 
perhaps,  be  called  one-sided  if  my  object  had 
been  to  give  a  picture  of  German  preaching  as  a 
whole.  Of  course,  sermons  of  a  different  stamp 
may  be  preached.  Nevertheless,  I  believe  that 
my  selection  can  be  called  one-sided  only  in  the 
sense  that  the  sermons  here  quoted  represent  in 
their  most  emphatic  form  thoughts  which  more  or 
less  dominate  nearly  the  whole  of  the  German 
mind,  and  therefore  of  German  pulpit  eloquence. 
I  have,  at  any  rate,  irrefutably  proved  that  the 
thoughts  expressed  in  these  sermons  are  wide- 
spread in  the  highest  degree,  that  arrogance,  self- 
righteousness,  the  blindest  Pharisaism,  and  the 
bitterest  hatred,  characterise  a  great  number  of 
German  sermons  at  the  present  time.  How  sig- 
nificant in  this  connection  is  a  letter  from  the  front, 
written  by  a  Hessian  peasant: 

"How  little  help  is  afforded  to  the  heart's  in- 
most and  deepest  need  by  many  a  preacher's  ser- 


134    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

mon.  For  one  hears  sermons  which  actually  of- 
fend one.  When  a  pastor  represents  our  Father- 
land as  God,  and  eternal  life  as  a  life  continued 
in  the  memories  of  later  generations,  when  the 
sting  of  death  is  explained  away  by  the  argument 
that  death  loses  its  sting  when  one  dies  for  the 
Fatherland,  and  when  one  is  bidden  to  see  hell 
only  in  the  foe  against  whom  one  has  to  fight — 
all  this  is  ill-suited  to  strengthen  the  spark  of  faith 
which  has  been  lighted  in  many  a  heart  by  the 
terrible  things  which  one  has  to  live  through." 

The  numerous  sermons  I  have  quoted  here  be- 
long to  this  class,  as  also  does  the  following  frag- 
ment of  a  sermon  to  soldiers  (from  the  Protes- 
tantenblatt,  Number  13,  19 1 5 )  : 

"If  you  ask  me:  'How  shall  I  build  up  the 
Kingdom  of  God?'  my  answer  is:  'Be  a  good 
German !  Stand  fast  by  the  Fatherland.  Do 
your  duty  and  fulfil  your  misssion.  Seek  to  sub- 
merge yourself  in  German  spirit,  in  German  mind. 
Be  German  in  piety  and  will,  which  simply  means : 
be  true,  faithful,  and  valiant.  Help  as  best  you 
can  towards  our  victory;  help  to  make  our  Father- 
land grow  and  wax  mighty.'  " 

That  the  results  of  my  investigations  are  trust- 
worthy will  also  appear  from  the  fact  that  I  have 
made  a  counter-test.  Professor  Uckeley,  whom 
I  have  mentioned  more  than  once,  in  his  review 
of  war  literature,  has  given  the  very  first  place 
to    Geheimekonsistorialrath    Dr.    Paul    Conrad, 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      135 

whose  works  of  devotion  are  stated  to  have  cir- 
culated in  the  army  in  millions  of  copies,  and  has 
lauded  him  as  a  model  of  all  the  virtues.  The 
University  of  Berlin,  too,  has  recently  conferred 
upon  him  an  honorary  degree.  After  reviewing 
his  work,  Professor  Uckeley  says,  "I  would  have 
preferred  to  close  my  account  of  this  branch  of 
practical-theological  literature  with  Dr.  Conrad, 
for  anything  better  than  his  discourses  cannot,  in 
my  opinion,  be  produced!" 

Seeing  this,  I  procured  one  of  his  books.  It 
bears  the  title:  Strong  in  the  Lord,  and  is,  like 
the  rest,  embellished  with  the  Iron  Cross.  It 
contains  a  number  of  short  devotional  utterances, 
in  which  there  is  naturally  not  room  for  such 
effusions  as  those  I  have  previously  quoted. 
Therefore  Dr.  Conrad's  book  is  a  little  more  re- 
fined. Nevertheless,  we  recognise  the  same 
thoughts.  Here,  too,  Geibel  is  exalted  to  the 
skies.  Under  the  heading  "Hallowed  be  thy 
name,"  we  read  as  follows: 

"Emanuel  Geibel,  the  herald  of  the  new  German 
Empire,  whose  name  had  for  long  sunk  into  un- 
deserved neglect,  has  now  again  been  raised  to 
high  honour,  because  he  almost  prophetically  for- 
saw  the  events  which  we  are  now  witnessing.  He 
had  a  presentiment,  decades  ago,  of  the  fight 
against  east  and  west  which  we  are  now  carrying 
on.  From  him  emanated  the  words  which  we 
hear  so  frequently  at  the  present  time,  'And  by 
the  German  nature  the  world  shall  once  more  be 


136    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

healed.'  This  is  an  expression  of  the  joy  of  cer- 
tain victory  and  of  justified  self-esteem.  We  feel 
ourselves  to  be  the  depositaries  of  a  superior  Kul- 
tur.  We  have  no  doubt  that  a  defeat  of  our  peo- 
ple would  retard  by  centuries  the  development  of 
mankind.  On  the  other  hand,  we  hope,  by  the 
victory  of  our  arms,  to  bring  about  a  new  efflor- 
escence of  humanity  through  the  German  nature, 
which  will  thus  prove  itself  fruitful  of  blessings 
for  other  nations  as  well." 

We  have  here,  then,  the  same  view  which  we 
find  everywhere  else:  to  wit,  that  it  is  of  vital 
importance  to  the  world  that  Germany  should  be 
victorious  in  whatever  wars  she  may  wage! 
Would  it  be  too  bold  to  ask,  what  blessing  the 
world  has  derived  from  Germany's  victories  in 
1870-71?  It  is,  I  think,  a  little  difficult  to  dis- 
cover it.  And  all  the  preachers  I  have  quoted, 
who  in  this  respect  must  be  regarded  as  impartial 
witnesses,  have,  in  their  eagerness  to  throw  all  the 
limelight  upon  Germany's  revival  in  19 14,  de- 
picted the  previous  condition  of  Germany  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  make  one  suspect  that  Germany 
herself,  the  great  physician  of  mankind,  did  not 
reap  any  particular  blessing  from  her  former 
victory.  Even  Dr.  Conrad  confesses  it:  "Super- 
ficiality and  externality,  selfishness  and  self-in- 
dulgence, carried  all  before  them.  The  war  re- 
vealed all  our  pitifulness  and  inward  poverty." 
Is  it  not  strange  that  a  Christian  who,  as  such, 
must  know  that  the  greatest  spiritual  victories  are 


TOLZIEN  AND  COLLEAGUES      137 

often  achieved  through  outward  defeat,  cannot 
conceive  the  possibility  that  a  defeat  for  Germany 
could  have  a  purifying,  ennobling,  renovating  ef- 
fect upon  the  German  people!  I  wonder  what 
blessing  Germany's  victory  would  now  confer  upon 
the  world!  I  fancy  that  the  great  physician  of 
mankind,  the  German  Empire,  would  first  of  all 
appear  in  the  character  of  a  surgeon.  In  that 
branch  of  the  profession  it  has  already  dis- 
tinguished itself!  Germany  would  no  doubt 
undertake  some  extensive  amputations,  of  course 
with  assurances  that  they  would  be  all  for  the 
patient's  good,  even  if  they  should  cause  some 
pain  for  the  moment.  One  of  the  patients,  Bel- 
gium, would  probably  die  from  the  operation,  but 
Germany  would  no  doubt  say,  like  the  doctor  in 
the  comedy:  "Why,  yes,  the  patient  died,  but  the 
fever  left  him!" — Conrad,  however,  does  admit 
that  the  German  nature  must  itself  be  hallowed  if 
it  is  to  heal  the  world. 

But  he,  too,  makes  it  his  standing  assumption 
that  the  cause  of  Germany  and  the  cause  of  God 
are  the  same.  "One  with  God  is  the  majority." 
— And  how  about  the  description  of  the  enemy? 
Listen  to  this: 

"Also  the  blessings  of  the  Reformation  are  at 
stake  (!).  Shall  French  ungodliness,  shall  Rus- 
sian superstition,  shall  English  hypocrisy  rule  the 
world,  and  force  us  also  under  their  yoke  of 
thraldom  ?  Never !  For  the  blessing  of  our  faith, 
for  the  freedom  of  our  conscience,  for  our  Ger- 


138     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

manism  and  for  our  Gospel,  we  will  fight  and 
struggle  and  make  every  sacrifice  !  Ein'  feste  Burg 
ist  unser  Gott.  And  if  the  world  were  full  of 
devils,  we  shall  maintain  our  Empire !" 

The  same  tune  over  and  over  again!  May  we 
not  justly  be  astounded  at  the  idea  that  the  foes 
of  Germany  would  think  of  depriving  the  Ger- 
mans of  "the  blessings  of  their  faith,"  of  "their 
Gospel,"  of  their  "freedom  of  conscience?"  Do 
their  faith  and  their  Gospel  sit  so  lightly  upon 
the  Germans  that  others  can  take  them  away? 
Or  do  they  really  believe  that  their  foes  will  make 
it  their  business  to  persecute  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  Germany?  Even  if  it  were  so,  the  only  digni- 
fied answer  for  a  Christian,  I  take  it,  would  be, 
"Do  your  worst!  No  foe  can  ever  rob  us  of  our 
faith  and  of  our  conscience — and  truth  and  right 
will  be  victorious  in  the  end." 

In  order,  however,  to  be  as  just  as  possible,  I 
will  quote  yet  one  more  utterance  which  is  gener- 
ally looked  upon  as  a  model  of  what  a  German 
sermon  should  be.  We  shall  then  see  to  how 
great  a  height  a  German  preacher  can  rise  during 
this  war. 


CHAPTER  X 

J.    LAHUSEN 

HERR  GENERALSUPERINTENDANT  J. 
LAHUSEN,  on  March  7th,  19 15,  delivered 
a  sermon  which  has  been  printed  in  50,000  copies 
and  distributed  far  and  wide.  Its  title  is  The 
Fifth  Petition  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  England. 
This  title  excites  one's  curiosity  and  raises  high 
expectations.  It  evidently  must  be  the  preacher's 
intention  to  combat  the  boundless  hatred  of  his 
countrymen  towards  England,  to  insist  that  Ger- 
man Christians,  in  saying  the  Lord's  Prayer,  must, 
even  during  the  war,  fulfil  the  duty  of  a  Christian 
and  forgive  their  enemies,  forgive  those  who  tres- 
pass against  them,  not  excluding  England.  And, 
indeed,  the  speaker  is  conscious  of  the  fact  that  in 
this  sermon  it  is  not  his  business  merely  to  please 
his  hearers.  He  addresses  many  serious  words  to 
his  German  fellow  Christians.  They,  as  well  as 
all  others,  are  sinners  before  God.  If  they  wish 
to  have  His  forgiveness  they  must  also  be  ready 
to  forgive  others. 

"We  must  forgive,  but  how  hard  it  is!  How 
hard  in  our  time,  which  is  full  of  flaming  wrath 
and  merciless  hatred,  filling  not  only  individuals, 

139 


140     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

but  whole  nations  with  rage.  The  name  of  one 
people  we  all  carry  in  our  soul,  and  it  is  as  if  the 
soul  of  the  nation  shrieked  aloud.  All  the  un- 
fathomable misery  of  this  war,  all  its  blood-stained 
suffering — we  cannot  forgive  England  that. 
Towards  England  no  voice  of  charity  is  any  longer 
heard  within  us,  but  anger,  hatred,  contempt, 
curses — the  craving  for  retribution. 

"This  we  understand;  but  there  is  no  mora- 
torium in  Christianity."  He  then  expounds  that 
hatred  is  not  strength  but  weakness.  Hatred  is 
not  the  road  to  victory.  In  hatred  we  lose  our 
better  self.  God  is  not  in  hatred.  We  must  be 
on  God's  side,  we  must  wield  our  German  sword 
in  the  name  of  Jesus.  This  we  can  only  do  in 
the  love  of  God;  and  God's  love  is  forgiveness. 
We  cannot  possess  God  in  Pharisaical  self-right- 
eousness, which  can  see  only  guilt  in  the  enemy, 
for  God  grants  His  grace  only  to  the  humble. 
We  must  first  and  foremost  hate  that  in  ourselves 
which  is  a  bar  to  peace.  We  must  pray  the  prayer 
of  Jesus:  "Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do!"  We  must  long  for  the  time 
when  we,  too,  can  build  bridges  from  nation  to 
nation,  even  across  the  Channel ! 

This  sounds  all  very  well.  And  yet !  Another 
strain  of  thought  runs  parallel  with  this,  which, 
in  my  opinion,  robs  the  words  of  the  sermon  of 
all  their  power.  The  preacher,  in  the  beginning 
of  his  sermon,  makes  a  reservation  which  must 
inevitably  cause  those  who  are  to  be  so  kindly 
forgiven  to  reject  this  forgiveness  with  indignation. 


J.  LAHUSEN  141 


He  says:  "Mutual  accusations  resound  over 
land  and  sea,  there  is  a  vast  chorus  of  nations 
which  cries  out  to  us  Germans,  'Ye  are  the  guilty 

ones!' But  even  if  the  whole  world  were 

against  us,  ay,  even  if  in  the  end  it  trod  us  under 
foot  by  its  superior  force,  yet  would  we  with  our 
last  breath  protest:  No,  a  thousand  times  no! 
We  are  not  the  guilty  ones.  We  will  never  bend 
the  knee  and  pray:  Father,  forgive  us  our  respon- 
sibility for  this  world-war." 

And  later  on  he  says:  "But  can  we,  then,  for- 
give our  enemies  who  stand  against  us?  Sin  is  sin 
and  must  remain  sin,  must  be  called  sin  and  pun- 
ished as  sin.  Yea,  verily;  so  long  as  the  sin  has 
not  been  acknowledged  and  repented,  we  cannot 
in  truth  forgive.  We  cannot  do  this  in  our  per- 
sonal life;  nor  can  we  do  it  in  the  war  of  the 
nations.  We  must  be  wroth  and  will  be  wroth 
with  the  whole  power  of  our  inner  man.  We  will 
hate  the  will  of  the  nation  which  has  so  basely 
set  upon  our  peace-loving  people  in  order  to  de- 
stroy us.  We  will  hate  the  Satanic  powers  of  ar- 
rogance and  selfishness,  of  treachery  and  cruelty, 
of  lying  and  hypocrisy.  We  will  fight  without 
scruple  and  employ  all  means  of  destruction,  how- 
ever terrible  they  may  be.  We  cannot  do  other- 
wise; but  we  do  not  hate  the  individual  human 
beings.  The  low  hatred,  which  leads  to  corruption 
and  death  is  personal.  The  true,  beneficent 
hatred  applies  to  things,  not  persons.  God 
dwells  also  in  hatred,  in  the  hatred  of  all  evil. 
Thus  we  are  sure  that  we  are  fighting  in  the  serv- 
ice of  God,  in  the  service  of  His  glorious  eternal 
love." 


142     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

Words,  words,  words !  And  what  is  the  gist  of 
all  these  fair  words?  Only  this:  that  the  individ- 
ual German  must  not  hate  the  individual  English- 
man with  a  personal  hatred !  It  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  a  Christian  clergyman,  who  had  taken 
for  his  text  the  fifth  petition  in  the  Lord's  prayer, 
did  not  impress  this  upon  his  hearers !  But  in  the 
matter  here  at  issue,  in  the  relation  between  the 
peoples,  Germany  is  as  pure  as  the  whitest  dove, 
whilst  England  is  the  representative  of  the  Satanic 
powers  of  arrogance  and  selfishness,  treachery  and 
cruelty,  falsehood  and  hypocrisy !  And  before 
England  can  hope  for  Germany's  forgiveness,  it 
is  insisted  that  she  shall  be  punished  for  her  sin, 
and  penitently  acknowledge  her  aforesaid  alliance 
with  hell  itself !  If  I  were  an  Englishman  I  know 
what  my  answer  would  be.  I  would  reply:  No, 
thank  you,  on  those  conditions  I  do  not  care  for 
forgiveness!  Is  my  nation  to  beg  forgiveness  of 
yours  because  Germany  violated  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium,  because  Germany  bombarded  open  sea- 
ports and  from  her  Zeppelins  constantly  showers 
death  and  destruction  upon  defenceless  people, 
because  Germany  fights  against  us  with  poisonous 
gases,  because  Germany  torpedoed  the  Lusitania? 
We  have  no  use  for  forgiveness  from  a  nation 
which  acts  like  this,  and  yet  maintains  that  it  is 
guiltless  and  in  no  need  of  forgiveness  for  this 
war  and  its  horrors! 

Is  England,  then,  without  guilt!  That  I  dare 
not  maintain.     It  is  altogether  incomprehensible 


J.  LAHUSEN  143 


to  me  that  anv  one  can  fail  to  see  that  this  terrible 
world-war  has  sprung  from  a  number  of  different 
causes,  from  all  the  evil  in  the  life  of  the  nations 
as  well  as  in  that  of  individuals.  Who  dares  to 
lay  the  entire  blame  upon  a  single  power?  But  it 
is  and  remains  astounding,  that,  one  after  another, 
Germany's  men  of  note  can  stand  forth  and  declare 
that  Germany  is  entirely  blameless.  Is  Germany, 
then,  entirely  without  blame  for  the  desperate 
competition  in  armaments,  which  could  not  but 
bear  in  themselves  the  germs  of  war?  Has  Ger- 
many a  spotless  past  with  regard  to  Poland,  with 
regard  to  Denmark,  with  regard  to  France?  Has 
she  never  committed  any  encroachments  and 
thereby  sown  the  seed  of  hatred  against  herself? 
No,  if  I  were  a  German  and  had  to  plead  the 
cause  of  my  country,  I  think  I  should  have  suffi- 
cient self-criticism  to  say  that  I  certainly  look  upon 
our  cause  as  a  good  one,  and  I  must,  in  any  case, 
fight  for  the  Fatherland;  but  that  I  dared  not 
assume  the  other  nations  alone  to  be  guilty,  and 
my  own  nation  entirely  without  responsibility  for 
this  world-conflagration.  And  it  is  necessary  that 
this  feeling  of  a  common  guilt  should  arise  in  the 
hearts  of  all  the  belligerents,  so  that  the  result  of 
the  war  may  be,  not  the  satisfaction  of  the  lust 
of  vengeance,  but  a  will  for  justice. 

In  any  case,  the  forgiveness  here  offered  is  not 
worth  calling  forgiveness.  It  cannot  be  accepted 
by  any  Englishman  who,  no  less  than  the  German, 
fights  for  his  Fatherland,  and  is  equally  convinced 


144     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

that  he  fights  for  ideal  aims.  One  must,  indeed, 
acknowledge  the  Herr  Generalsuperintendant's 
good  intentions — that  is  something.  But  his 
strength  has  failed  him.  And  why?  Of  course 
— one  is  almost  tempted  to  say — the  reason  is  the 
usual  one :  the  ineradicable  superstition  of  the 
unique  excellence  of  Germanism,  its  purity,  its 
innocence,  its  perfect  blamelessness.  A  German 
can  sin  only  as  a  human  being,  not  as  a  German. 
In  this  paradox  we  have  the  whole  thing  in  a 
nutshell. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SPEECHES    BY   GERMAN    PROFESSORS 

HAVING  dealt  at  some  length  with  the  Ger- 
man war  sermon  as  preached  in  the  German 
Protestant  church,  I  will  now  take  up  a  somewhat 
different  subject.  Laymen  have  also  had  their 
say  about  the  war;  and  here,  too,  the  material  is, 
of  course,  abundant.  I  have  in  view  more  espec- 
ially one  volume,  a  collection  of  speeches  with  the 
title:  Deutsche  Reden  in  schwerer  Zeit  {German 
Speeches  in  Trying  Times).  This  volume  is  evi- 
dently intended  as  a  monumental  effort:  in  it  some 
of  the  most  eminent  professors  at  the  University 
of  Berlin  have  set  themselves  to  comfort  and  en- 
courage their  countrymen  in  the  hard  times 
through  which  they  are  passing.  From  a  purely 
literary  standpoint,  these  speeches  rank  somewhat 
higher  than  the  average  of  the  clerical  discourses. 
But  they  are  throughout  pervaded  by  the  same 
fundamental  ideas.  What  Fichte  did  alone  in  the 
time  of  Germany's  humiliation,  when  Napoleon 
was  master  in  Berlin,  a  number  of  scholars  from, 
the  same  university  now  endeavour  to  do  in  the 
time  of  Germany's  greatness. 

The  book  dates  from  the  first  period  of  the 

145 


146    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

war,  which  was  so  brilliant  for  Germany.  In  a 
preface  it  is  stated  that:  "As  to  the  necessity  or 
non-necessity  of  the  war  there  was  no  doubt,  and 
the  justice  of  the  German  cause  from  the  first  mo- 
ment filled  every  German  with  the  certainty  of 
victory."  Then  "followed  in  rapid  succession  the 
tremendous  events  of  the  first  weeks,  the  healing 
of  Germany  from  party  strife  and  class  hatred, 
and  the  victorious  advance  of  our  troops  against 
the  enemy.  German  history  has  never  had  a 
greater  time  to  record  in  her  annals.  All  troubles 
seemed  to  have  vanished  in  the  one  feeling  that 
took  possession  of  the  whole  people  and  of  all 
classes:  How  fortunate  we  are  in  being  Germans." 
These  speeches  were  consequently  delivered  to 
form  a  lasting  expression  of  this  mood,  and  pre- 
serve it  for  future  ages;  for  "in  them  lives  the 
spirit  and  temper  of  this  time.  They  are  a  testi- 
mony to  the  way  in  which  the  German  people  bears 
this  war.  In  them  flame  all  the  wrath  and  all  the 
passion  of  these  days;  but  in  them  we  also  find  an 
expression  of  the  calm  reflectiveness  and  mindful- 
ness of  our  highest  blessings  and  duties,  which 
this  great  time  imposes  on  all." 

The  book  opens  with  a  paper  by  the  famous 
philologist,  U.  von  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff.  It 
is  a  speech  of  great  refinement,  delivered  by  a 
man  who  himself  took  part  in  the  war  of  1870, 
and  who  is  therefore  able  to  speak  with  authority. 
Its  keynote  is  a  firm  conviction  of  Germany's 
right,  and  it  works  up  to  a  fervent  prayer  for  the 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  147 

salvation  of  Germany,  for  her  freedom  and  her 
victory.  But  here,  also,  we  come  upon  two  phe- 
nomena, extremely  common  indeed,  but  which  al- 
ways arouse  our  astonishment  anew.  The  one  is 
the  strange,  unreasoning  conviction  that  no  one 
in  Germany  willed  the  war !  The  other  is  the  tone 
adopted  towards  Germany's  foes.  We  find  ex- 
actly the  same  strain  of  thought  in  this  thoroughly 
refined  mind  that  we  found  in  the  war-sermons. 
He  does  not  hesitate  to  write  about  Belgium : 
"See  what  the  war  has  laid  bare  in  others !  What 
have  we  learnt  of  the  soul  of  Belgium?  Has  it 
not  revealed  itself  as  the  soul  of  cowardice  and 
assassination?  They  have  no  moral  forces  within 
them;  therefore  they  resort  to  the  torch  and  dag- 
ger." He  pities  the  Russians,  who  stolidly  suffer 
themselves  to  be  led  to  the  slaughter-house.  He 
speaks  of  the  French  with  a  certain  respect,  but 
declares  that  they  have  been  forced  into  this  war 
against  their  will  by  the  ruling  caste. — But  Eng- 
land! "Here  we  have  the  prime  mover,  the  evil 
spirit  which  has  conjured  up  this  war  from  hell. 
The  spirit  of  envy  and  the  spirit  of  hypocrisy." 
Always  the  same  old  tale ! 

Then  follows  a  paper  by  G.  Roethe:  We  Ger- 
mans and  the  W ar.  It  stands,  perhaps,  a  little 
lower  than  its  predecessor.  Here,  too,  we  find 
the  usual  jubilation  over  Germany's  greatness  and 
Germany's  unity.  The  speaker  declares  quite 
openly  that  it  is  now  the  mission  of  Germany  to 
vindicate    her   place    as    a    world-empire    among 


148    hurrah  and  hallelujah 

world-empires.  But  with  him  the  contempt  for 
Germany's  adversaries  is  still  more  pronounced. 
He  speaks  of  the  worthless  Serbia,  the  operetta- 
king  Nikita  with  his  tin  soldiers !  Russia  is  treated 
with  condescending  scorn.  He  reproaches  France, 
that  his  colleagues  of  the  University  of  Paris  were 
too  cowardly  (!)  to  resist  the  people's  foolish 
craving  for  revenge,  and  their  still  more  foolish 
fear  of  a  German  attack !  But  then  it  is  England's 
turn,  and  in  this  connection  he  lets  himself  go  with- 
out restraint.  Lie  speaks  of  this  nation  whose 
best  sons  remain  at  home  and  hire  others  to  fight 
for  them,  and  attacks  its  "abysmal  hypocrisy," 
"the  national  vice  which  has  been  incarnated  for 
us  in  Sir  Edward  Grey."  England  violates  inter- 
national law,  England  knows  neither  humanity 
nor  right.  "It  is  an  almost  sinister  self-contradic- 
tion: the  individual  Englishman  in  private  life  is 
by  no  means  devoid  of  a  certain  outward  decency, 
perhaps  because  he  thinks  it  pays :  but  the  public 
morals  of  England  do  not  shrink  from  any  base- 
ness!" This  remark  about  the  individual  Eng- 
lishman is  itself,  perhaps,  the  basest  thing  which 
has  been  said  about  the  English  by  any  German. — 
Further,  England  shall  be  struck  to  earth. 
"Against  a  vile,  cowardly  foe,  who  does  not  hes- 
itate to  assault  us  when  he  thinks  we  are  faced 
by  superior  forces,  against  such  a  contemptible 
crew,  popular  wit  has  long  ago  found  the  right 
formula:  'At  every  hit,  Down  with  a  Brit'  [i.  e. 
Briton]."     He  hopes  the  Flemish  race  will  be  in- 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  149 

corporated  with  the  German  empire — and  this 
does  not  only  apply  to  Flemish  Belgium,  but  also 
to  Dunkirk.  His  covetous  eye  even  reaches  as 
far  as  Calais,  in  order  that  the  German  howitzers 
may  thence  speak  their  honest,  forcible  language, 
in  opposition  to  English  cant! — Here  again  we 
come  upon  the  inevitable  Geibel,  here  again  the 
speaker  enlarges  upon  "the  holy  faith  in  the  Ger- 
nan  people's  world-historic  mission  against  barbar- 
ism and  un-Kultur.  Whilst  other  nations  are  born, 
ripen  and  grow  old,  the  Germans  alone  possess 
the  gift  of  rejuvenescence.  We  hope  that  a  young, 
strong,  purified  Germany  will  become  a  source  of 
rejuvenescence  for  the  ageing  Kultur  of  all  Eu- 
rope!" 

Then  follows  Herr  Otto  von  Gierke,  who  has 
chosen  as  his  theme:  War  and  Kultur.  He  be- 
gins by  emphasising  the  notorious  fact  of  the 
great  German  love  for  peace,  which  the  foes  of 
Germany  have  so  shamelessly  abused. 

But  now  that  we  Germans  are  plunged  in  war, 
we  will  have  it  in  all  its  grandeur  and  violence! 
And  he  uses  the  words  which  events  have  hitherto 
so  tragically  confirmed.  "Neither  fear  nor  pity 
shall  stay  our  arm  before  it  has  completely  brought 
our  enemies  to  the  ground."  War  is  not  only  the 
great  destroyer,  but  also  the  great  builder.  What 
have  not  German  wars  given  to  Germany?  On 
this  subject  he  enlarges  at  some  length.  The  last 
victorious  war  procured  for  Germany  forty-three 
years  of  peace,  and  they  have  been  well  employed, 


150     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

amongst  other  things  in  the  formation  of  a  sys- 
tem of  law  surpassing  those  of  all  other  ages,  and 
all  other  nations!  But  the  tremendous  progress 
of  Germany  in  commerce,  industry,  etc.,  called 
forth  the  envy  of  their  neighbours,  and  they 
leagued  themselves  in  the  infamous  attempt  to 
strangle  Germany  by  their  superior  force,  an 
attempt  emanating  from  the  degenerate  English 
shopkeeper  soul,  which  craftily  pulled  the  strings, 
until  at  last  it  summoned  up  courage  for  its  un- 
heard-of treachery! 

But  had  we,  he  asks,  during  the  long  period  of 
peace,  faithfully  preserved  the  inward  blessings 
we  had  won?  No,  we  were  in  a  fair  way  of  losing 
them.  We  were  on  the  point  of  splitting  up  into 
parties  and  hostile  classes,  and  Social  Democracy 
had  actually  declared  war  against  the  Monarchy, 
our  most  precious  heritage,  the  strong  bulwark  of 
true  liberty !  We  subordinated  our  own  nationality 
to  all  that  was  foreign,  and  German  idealism  had 
almost  become  an  empty  phrase.  Frivolity  and 
sensuality  grew  apace.  Then  with  the  war  came 
the  great  miracle :  the  German  nation  found  itself 
again,  when  the  Kaiser,  with  shining  eyes  and  lofty 
mind,  took  the  lead,  and  all  partitions  fell.  And, 
as  in  all  the  great  epochs  of  German  history,  this 
conversion  to  the  Fatherland  was  also  a  con- 
version to  God.  Therefore  we  will  and  must  win 
such  a  victory  as  shall  place  the  fate  of  Europe 
in  our  hands.  Then  follow  the  usual  invectives 
against  the  enemy;  the  morally  debased  and  de- 
cadent France,  Russia  with  her  knout,  England 
with  her  treacherous  robber-politics — they  shall 
all,  once  for  all,  be  reduced  to  such  a  condition 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  151 


that  they  shall  never  again  dare  even  to  snarl  at 
Germany.  Then  the  dawn  of  a  new  time  will 
burst  forth,  when  German  Kultur  will  be  able  to 
unfold  itself,  purer,  and  fuller  and  lovelier  than 
ever  before. 

It  will  then  be  German  Kultur  which  will  spread 
its  rays  from  the  centre  of  our  continent.  And 
now  follows  a  superb  sentence  which  I  will  quote 
verbatim,  and  commend  to  the  close  consideration 
of  those  who  hope  that  Germany,  after  a  victor- 
ious war,  will  alter  her  treatment  of  annexed 
nationalities:  "The  more  German  Kultur  re- 
mains faithful  to  itself,  the  better  will  it  be  able 
to  enlighten  the  understanding  of  the  foreign 
races  absorbed,  incorporated  into  the  Empire,  and 
to  make  them  see  that  only  from  German  Kultur 
can  they  derive  those  treasures  which  they  need 
for  the  fertilising  of  their  own  particular  life," 
etc.,  etc.  And  what  glorious  results  will  not  vic- 
tory bring  to  Germany  herself.  Then  the  tie  be- 
tween the  dynasties  and  the  people  will  never 
break,  then  no  one  will  ever  again  dare  to  find 
fault  with  the  military  spirit  of  our  State,  and  at 
the  same  time  popular  freedom  will  emerge  from 
the  war  strengthened  and  purified!  How  much 
freedom  do  not  both  individuals  and  societies  al- 
ready possess!  As  a  reward  for  the  fidelity  of 
our  fellow-subjects  speaking  foreign  tongues,  we 
will  also  show  them  greater  confidence  than  be- 
fore, and  acknowledge  their  full  rights  as  citizens." 
[That  is,  if  they  will  be  good,  seek  their  nourish- 
ment in  German  Kultur,  and  admire  all  Prussian 
institutions!]  "And  when  the  victory  is  won,  the 
world  will  stand  open  to  us,  our  war  expenses  will 


152     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

be  paid  by  the  vanquished,  the  black-white-and-red 
flag  shall  wave  over  all  seas,  our  countrymen  will 
hold  highly-respected  posts  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  we  will  maintain  and  extend  our  col- 
onies. The  whole  world  will  stand  open  to  us, 
so  that,  in  untrammelled  rivalry,  we  shall  unfold 
the  energy  of  the  German  nature.  But  to  ac- 
complish this  it  is  certain  that  we  must  completely 
overthrow  the  most  cunning  and  infamous  of  all 
our  enemies,  England  to  wit.  The  Englishman 
thinks  he  is  safe  on  his  island.  Really?  We  shall 
seel" 

After  an  enthusiastic  encomium  on  German  Kul- 
tur,  without  whose  influence  the  world-Kultur 
would  be  flat  and  pitiful,  he  continues  as  follows : 

"When  has  Germany  tried  to  extinguish  the 
peculiar  life  of  other  nations?  Is  there  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  any  other  people  which  has  al- 
ways accorded  to  foreign  Kultur  such  loving  and 
disinterested  appreciation  as  has  the  German? 
Justice  belongs  to  the  essence  of  German  Kultur. 
We  understand  the  special  value  of  each  individual 
Kultur,  and  consider  the  multiplicity  of  Kulturs  as 
an  expression  of  the  riches  of  mankind.  Nor  will 
we  for  the  future  grudge  any  nation  the  free  de- 
velopment of  its  mental  individuality;  on  the  con- 
trary, we  will  sympathetically  rejoice  in  every  Kul- 
tur-efflorescence.  The  idea  of  the  exclusive  justi- 
fication of  one's  own  Kultur  which  is  innate  in  the 
English  and  French,  is  foreign  to  us  (  ?) .  But  we 
are  conscious  of  the  incomparable  value  of  Ger- 
man  Kultur,   and   will   for   the   future   guard   it 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  153 

against  being  adulterated  by  less  valuable  imports. 
We  do  not  force  it  upon  any  one  (  ?) ,  but  we  be- 
lieve that  its  own  inner  greatness  will  everywhere 
procure  for  it  the  recognition  which  is  its  due. 
For  we  are  proud  of  it  and  know  what  it  means 
for  mankind."  Then  he  quotes  the  saying  of 
Fichte,  that  the  German  people  are  called  to  be 
the  upholders  of  the  world-Kultur,  and  that  it 
is  therefore  their  duty  to  mankind  to  assert  them- 
selves. At  last,  of  course,  comes  the  prophet 
Geibel,  and,  for  the  hundredth  time,  uplifts  his 
voice  to  declare  that  by  the  German  nature  an  ail- 
ing world  shall  be  healed. 

In  this  collection  of  war-lectures  which  was 
meant  to  stand  as  a  monument  to  the  elevation  of 
German  thought,  it  has  not  been  thought  unfit- 
ting to  include  a  contribution  from  the  old  fanatic 
Professor  Adolf  Lasson,  whose  epistle  to  and 
about  the  Dutch  sufficiently  proves  his  incredible 
German  arrogance.  His  contribution  covers  no 
less  than  forty  pages,  and  simply  overflows  with 
idolatry  of  Germanism. 

He  of  course  begins  in  the  usual  strain,  that 
Germany  wished  for  peace,  and  that  the  war  is 
due  to  the  malice  of  her  neighbours.  Next  he 
describes  the  barbarities  which  the  enemy  prac- 
tise in  their  mode  of  warfare.  "Everything  is 
permissible  against  the  Germans. — Our  foes  have 
relapsed  into  barbarism,  ay,  to  a  degree  of  bar- 
barism even  lower  than  that  which  prevailed  thou- 
sands of  years  ago."     Our  army  is  calumniated, 


154    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

although  the  world  has  never  seen  its  match  in 
manly  strength,  in  moral  restraint,  in  the  high 
level  of  its  culture!  The  world  was  surprised  at 
the  energy  of  this  army.  They  thought  we  were 
in  as  deplorable  a  condition  as  our  adversaries. 
"But  we  must  decline  the  honour  of  being  placed 
on  a  level  with  them."  "The  losses  we  suffer 
are — even  if  the  losses  of  the  enemy  were  ten 
times  as  numerous — infinitely  greater  in  value, 
and  infinitely  more  painful  (!).  But  this  blood 
shall  not  be  shed  in  vain.  German  nature,  Ger- 
man morals,  German  civilisation  shall  be  upheld 
and  strengthened  for  the  benefit  of  all  mankind; 
it  is  to  that  end  that  these  noble  men  have  died, 
these  brave  men  suffered."  "The  feeling  which 
goads  on  our  enemies  against  us  is  this:  We  can- 
not measure  ourselves  against  these  Germans,  they 
are  better  men  than  we.  That  is  why  our  foes 
fight  against  us ;  it  is  from  base  envy,  and  infamous 
cupidity;  but  it  is  our  mission  not  only  to  demon- 
strate our  superiority,  but  also  to  prepare  the  em- 
pire of  the  future,  where  the  deepest  foundation 
of  German  superiority,  where  German  nature  and 
culture,  unassailed  and  unassailable,  can  make 
room  for  itself  in  the  world,  and  serve  as  an  ex- 
ample." Yet  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  German 
thought  to  humiliate  others,  to  look  down  upon 
them.  [What  else  does  he  do  in  the  whole  of 
his  discourse?]  There  is  a  teaching  instinct,  ay, 
even  something  schoolmaster-like,  in  the  German 
nature.  The  German,  in  doing  right,  wants  to 
serve  as  an  example  for  others  and  stimulate  them 
to  imitation.  Victory,  therefore,  is  not  for  us  the 
highest  aim,  but  to  conquer  in  the  consciousness 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  155 

that  our  cause  is  the  cause  of  justice,  our  goal  the 
absolute  ideal. 

But  when  one  goes  about  to  appraise  the  value 
of  Germanism,  one  must  not  look  at  its  everyday 
aspect.  Besides,  all  German  shortcomings  have 
now  disappeared.  German  patriotism  is  different 
from  all  other  patriotism.  Other  nations  think 
only  of  their  own  interests.  But  we  have  allowed 
our  industry,  our  capital,  our  culture  and  our 
science  to  benefit  all  who  desired  it,  and  also  those 
who  did  not  desire  it  (  !).  We  have  never  been 
any  one's  enemy,  we  have  never  hated  any  one! 
Germany  is  the  centre-land,  here  is  the  centre  of 
Kultur.  The  war  has  inaugurated  a  new  age  for 
Europe  and  the  whole  Kultur-world:  the  old  is 
past  and  gone,  it  is  our  mission  to  build  up  some- 
thing new,  to  be  a  blessing  to  ourselves  and  to  all 
mankind.  For  we  Germans  represent  universality 
in  thought  and  interests. 

If  the  special  features  of  the  German  spirit 
are  to  be  enumerated,  mention  must  first  be  made 
of  inward  sincerity  and  depth.  The  German,  as 
such,  is  a  born  idealist.  All  deep  and  vital  feeling 
for  nature  is  of  German  origin.  And  with  that  the 
German  yearning  for  truth  goes  hand  in  hand. 
Others  value  a  thing  according  to  its  price  as  mer- 
chandise, or  according  to  its  usefulness,  etc.  But 
the  German  insists  upon  the  truth.  He  is  not  bril- 
liant, not  nimble-minded,  rather  obscure  and  diffi- 
cult to  understand;  he  broods,  but  he  gives  him- 
self up  entirely  to  his  subject.  And  then  he  has 
such  a  sober  temperament.  The  German  is  not 
easily  carried  away  by  feeling,  imagination  does 
not  get  the  upper  hand  with  him,  political  rhetoric 


156     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

does  not  affect  him.  It  would  be  quite  impossible 
to  weave  the  Germans  into  such  a  net  of  falsehoods 
as  has  enveloped  the  others  during  this  war. 

Imagination  and  intellect  in  the  German  are 
evenly  balanced.  Therefore  the  German  spirit 
is  a  spirit  of  stringent  methods,  in  which  each  de- 
tail is  carefully  considered  and  given  its  appointed 
place.  Regularity,  diligence,  perseverance,  cir- 
cumspection, calculation — all  these  belong  to  the 
true  German  nature. 

Then  comes  the  turn  of  German  faithfulness. 
In  the  relation  between  individuals,  this  German 
characteristic  manifests  itself  both  from  its  most 
amiable  and  from  its  most  venerable  side.  The 
universal-human  is  here  felt  more  deeply  than 
elsewhere.  To  be  sure,  arrogance  and  hard-heart- 
edness,  the  spirit  of  caste  and  of  class,  are  also 
to  be  found  in  Germany,  but  not  nearly  to  such  a 
degree  as,  for  example,  in  England.  In  Germany 
we  meet  with  faithfulness  in  leaders,  the  cheerful 
service  of  the  free  man,  who  willingly  gives  up 
everything  for  the  fame  and  power  of  the  Sov- 
ereign. It  is  our  pride  that  with  us  the  idea  of  the 
State  means  more  than  in  other  countries.  There 
one  sees  shameless  party-leaders  who  act  from 
calculation  and  egoism,  especially  in  England, 
where  they  have  now  led  the  country  to  ruin.  The 
German  is  free,  because  he  obeys  the  law,  and  the 
imperative  law  is  the  expression  of  reason.  Wo- 
man, to  the  German,  is  the  embodiment  of  all  that 
is  holy  and  ideal.  It  is  not  good  for  the  German 
to  be  alone.  He  must  have  joviality.  He  must 
also  be  allowed  to  have  a  long  drink;  it  is  an  old 
German    privilege.      His    fundamental   mood    is 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  157 

religious,  even  should  he  be  a  critical  doubter. 
Here,  too,  his  inward  sincerity  shows  itself,  and 
the  tendency  of  German  thought  has  always  been 
against  the  employment  of  religious  institutions 
and  religious  power  for  the  advancement  of  secular 
supremacy  and  the  power  of  the  State  (  ?).  The 
German  fear  of  God  takes  the  form  of  a  serene 
optimism.  He  who  thinks  otherwise  knows 
nothing  of  German  nature.  And  in  this  we  find 
the  root  of  German  will-power,  perseverance,  dil- 
igence, and  the  solidity  and  trustworthiness  that 
give  Germans  the  upper  hand  in  competition  with 
their  rivals.  In  this  connection  military  training  is 
of  much  importance.  The  German  is  personally 
independent.  He  wants  to  judge  for  himself.  It 
is  not  so  easy  for  him  as  for  others  blindly  to  fol- 
low this  or  that  catchword  (?).  He  is  terribly 
self-willed.  Therefore  he  is  systematic  in  every- 
thing. Elsewhere  people  are  content  with  an 
apercu,  a  superficial  survey;  the  thorough-going 
German  works  out  the  theory  of  things.  He  is  not 
elegant  in  form,  but  that  is  because  he  dives  to 
greater  depths  than  others,  whose  clearness  is  but 
a  testimony  to  their  shallowness. 

And  then  he  is  so  anxious  to  learn.  He  is  so 
given  to  admiring  everything  foreign,  and  under- 
estimating his  own.  Others  know  only  their  own 
affairs.  The  English  know  nothing  at  all.  They 
do  not  even  understand  what  militarism  is;  for 
them  it  is  a  term  of  reproach.  Hitherto  they 
have  managed  to  take  the  world  in,  but  now 
the  mask  has  been  torn  from  those  hypocrites. 
It  is  their  intention  to  betray  their  own  allies  (  ! !)  ; 
but  now  they  are  on  the  road  to  ruin  through  their 


158     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

ignorance,  their  stupid  arrogance.  This  time  they 
are  caught  in  their  own  snare,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
so  firmly  that  they  will  never  get  out  again.  For 
English  politics  are  incompatible  with  the  peace 
of  Europe. 

The  German  takes  what  is  good  wherever  he 
finds  it.  Germany  is  the  land  of  translations. 
Everything  interests  the  German.  That  is  why 
he  loves  peace.  He  is  so  fond  of  working  to- 
gether with  all  the  world  for  all  the  world's 
benefit.  He  is  not  in  the  least  bellicose;  on  the 
contrary,  if  anything,  he  is  too  peaceful.  But  if 
war  is  forced  upon  him,  he  is  unconquerable. 
Germans  are  luckily  no  longer  a  nation  of  poets 
and  thinkers;  then,  people  were  quite  content 
with  us,  but  now  that  we  have  developed  our  tech- 
nical skill  and  our  industries,  people  hate  and 
fear  us.  And  then  follows  a  very  remarkable 
statement  which  throws  a  peculiar  light  on  several 
things : 

"The  enemy  does  not  even  yet  know  all  we 
have  accomplished.  It  is  true  they  have  had  sam- 
ples in  the  air,  under  the  water,  and  on  land;  but 
we  have  still  several  things  up  our  sleeve,  with 
which  there  will  no  doubt  be  an  opportunity  of 
making  them  acquainted,  in  a  manner  anything 
but  pleasant  to  them." — When  that  was  written 
the  Germans  had  not  yet  begun  to  use  petroleum 
squirts  and  poison  bombs. 

He  next  speaks  about  German  science  and  Ger- 
man schools.  In  these  matters  our  enemies  are 
far  behind  us,  our  superiority  is  unquestionable. 
Our  opponents  are  fighting  against  us  for  the  pur- 
pose of  restoring  to  the  world  the  liberty,  the 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  159 

Kultur,  which  we  are  said  to  threaten.  What 
stupendous  mendacity!  Be  good  enough  first  to 
produce  anything  like  the  German  national  school- 
master, the  German  high-school  teacher,  the  Ger- 
man university  professor!  You  have  been  left 
far  behind,  you  are  hopelessly  inferior.  That 
is  the  cause  of  your  exasperation,  your  envy,  your 
fear.  In  your  impotence  you  foam  with  rage  and 
hatred,  employ  as  a  weapon  the  most  shameless 
calumny,  and  would  like  to  sweep  us  off  the  face 
of  the  earth,  in  order  that  you  need  no  longer 
have  cause  to  be  ashamed.  But  it  is  of  no  avail. 
If  you  try  to  vanquish  us  in  war,  we  will  first 
thrash  you  to  the  point  of  annihilation,  and  then 
despise  you  as  a  gang  of  robbers.  We  stand  in 
the  centre  of  scientific  labour — whole  domains  of 
science  bear  the  German  stamp.  Philology  is 
German,  history  is  German,  natural  science  is 
German,  philosophy  is  German.  You  want  to 
annihilate  us  and  yet  cannot  do  without  us.  Drugs, 
dyes,  chemicals,  instruments  of  precision,  the  ma- 
chines which  we  make,  are  indispensable  to  your 
welfare.  You  prefer  to  sail  in  our  ships,  you  pre- 
fer to  travel  on  our  railways,  our  banks  are  the 
most  solid,  our  cities  the  pleasantest,  our  hotels 
the  cleanest  in  the  world.  Our  army  and  our  fleet, 
too,  are  spiritual  powers.  Then  he  lauds  German 
discipline;  everything  of  ours  is  well  thought  out, 
clear  and  honest;  discipline  and  obedience  are  mat- 
ters of  course,  corruption  and  bribery  unthinkable. 
Germany's  princes  are  her  pride  and  ornament — 
is  there  in  the  whole  world  a  more  elevated  spec- 
tacle, a  nobler  picture? 

We  are  hated — but  there  can  be  no  question  of 


i6o    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

holding  Germany  responsible  for  this  hatred. 
The  German  nation,  the  German  empire  have 
never  threatened  any  one,  have  never  coveted  any 
mastery  over  others,  have  never  aimed  at  suprem- 
acy, but  only  defended  their  rights  and  their  hon- 
our against  the  outside  world,  and  at  home  done 
their  duty.  But  by  degrees  those  who  fell  behind 
in  the  race  conspired  together,  and  in  their  envy 
of  those  who  were  in  every  respect  better  men  than 
themselves,  set  themselves,  with  positively  insane 
malignity,  to  annihilate  those  who  had  outstripped 
them. 

But  they  shall  not  succeed.  We  know  that  our 
cause  is  the  good,  the  righteous  one,  and  that  hu- 
manity will  go  down  if  we  go  down.  The  flame 
of  patriotism  fires  us  all.  It  sweeps  away  our  ad- 
versaries from  before  our  face,  the  old  intrigue- 
spinners,  the  foes  of  everything  good,  those  who 
in  their  mad  egoism  are  bent  upon  destroying  us! 
The  great  and  noble  Chancellor,  our  Kaiser's 
councillor,  has  said  in  beautiful  words  that  his 
politics  are  governed  by  a  due  respect  for  the  law 
of  ethics.  That  is  our  German  way.  Our  op- 
ponents depend  upon  a  systematic  structure  of  lies; 
we  believe  in  the  power  of  truth.  They  encounter 
us  with  all  the  frenzy  of  insane  lawlessness  and 
cruelty;  we  conduct  the  war  with  forbearance  and 
humanity.  But  victorious  we  will  be.  Our  op- 
ponents, who  with  a  kind  of  suicidal  madness,  have 
delivered  themselves  into  our  hands,  shall  be  so 
weakened  that  they  will  never  again  be  able  to 
disturb  us  in  our  peaceful  labour. 

And  then,  when  the  divine  judgment  of  the  war 
has  been  consummated,  Germany  will  pursue,  un- 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  161 

disturbed,  her  mission  in  Europe,  threatening  no 
one,  injuring  no  one,  enriching  all,  instruct- 
ing all,  school-master-like,  in  her  own  me- 
thodical way.  No  striving  for  predominance, 
for  masterdom,  certainly  not;  equal  rights 
for  all.  This  will  be  the  beginning  of  the 
new  era.  When  the  peace  of  Europe  has  been 
made  secure  against  the  incredible  ambition  of 
France,  the  thick-skinned  egoism  of  England,  the 
destructive  brutality  of  Russia,  then  we  may  dare 
hope  for  the  empire  of  peace  in  the  whole  of  Eu- 
rope. Then  it  will  be  seen  what  German  militar- 
ism in  reality  means :  only  this,  to  be  protected 
against  hostile  attacks.  Germany  has  never 
thought  of  acquiring  privileges  for  herself,  of 
attacking  others,  of  extending  her  power  at  the 
cost  of  others  (  !).  A  new  spirit  will  then  make 
its  entry  into  mankind,  and  German  nature  and 
culture,  by  the  power  of  its  example,  will  incite 
others  to  imitate  them. — For  humanity  and  the 
victory  of  free  Kultur  we  Germans  are  ready  to 
bear  every  burden  and  to  make  every  sacrifice. 
Our  hope  of  victory  is  founded  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  our  worth  and  of  our  good  cause.  God 
will  not  forsake  His  Germans,  so  long  as  they 
carry  on  His  cause. 

And  this  mental  product  has  actually  been  ad- 
mitted into  a  work  designed  to  be  a  lasting  monu- 
ment of  the  attitude  of  the  German  spirit  during 
the  world-war.  The  most  lenient  view  to  take  of 
these  incredible  utterances  would  be  to  surmise  that 
the  author  was  entering  upon  his  second  child- 


162     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

hood.  It  is  a  wonderful  picture  that  rises  before 
the  mind's  eye :  Germany  as  the  world's  school- 
master: all  the  other  nations  gathering  round  Ger- 
many and  looking  up  to  her  with  admiration  and 
reverence  as  she  sits  at  her  desk.  They  imbibe 
wisdom  from  her  lips.  They  try,  as  best  they  can, 
to  imitate  her  achievements.  I  suppose,  however, 
that  the  instruction  will  be  carried  on  in  German 
fashion,  and  we  know  this  entails  discipline  and 
obedience.  If  it  should  happen,  that  one  or  other 
of  Germany's  scholars  should  grumble  a  little  and 
show  disinclination  to  learn  his  German  lessons, 
I  wonder  if  the  rod  would  not  come  into  play?  Of 
course  the  Germans  would  resort  to  it  only  in  a 
serious  emergency  and  with  a  bleeding  heart;  but, 
should  it  be  necessary,  the  culprit  must  remember 
that  it  is  all  for  his  good,  and  for  the  advancement 
of  world-Kultur. 

The  world-famed  ecclesiastical  historian,  Pro- 
fessor A.  Harnack,  has  also  contributed  to  this 
book.  This  eminent  scholar  has,  by  his  attitude 
during  the  war,  sadly  disappointed  his  many  for- 
eign admirers.  One  hears  on  all  hands  the  judg- 
ment— and  it  can  scarcely  be  called  groundless — 
that  German  science  has  not  stood  the  test  of  the 
war.  The  famous  manifesto  of  the  ninety-four 
intellectuals,  with  the  refrain,  "It  is  not  true," 
had  a  tragic  effect,  entirely  contrary  to  what  was 
intended.  Harnack,  in  an  address  to  the  Amer- 
icans in  Berlin,  is  said  to  have  spoken  as  follows: 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  163 

"Our  Kultur  was  entrusted  to  three  nations, 
ourselves,   the  Americans   and — the  English.      I 

veil  my  head  in  shame only  two  are  now  left. 

— For  us,  everything  is  now  at  stake,  our  whole 
spiritual  existence.  We  give  you  Americans  the 
solemn  promise,  that  we  will  shed  our  last  drop 
of  blood  for  this  Kultur." 

With  all  due  deference  to  Harnack,  one  must 
take  the  liberty  of  saying  that  there  is  not  a  grain 
of  common  sense  in  this  hysterical  utterance.  Be- 
cause the  English,  in  this  war,  have  taken  sides 
against  the  Germans,  he  holds  himself  entitled  to 
wipe  them  out  altogether  from  the  number  of 
Kultur-furthering  nations!  And  France,  in  his 
eyes,  does  not  appear  to  count  at  all  as  a  Kultur- 
nation !  That  the  spiritual  existence  of  the  Ger- 
mans is  threatened  is  also  an  opinion  one  would 
scarcely  have  expected  to  hear  from  that  quarter. 

It  is  really  amusing  to  compare  Harnack's  ut- 
terances with  those  of  another  German  of  note, 
P.  Rohrbach,  the  editor  of  Das  grossere  Deutsch- 
land  {Greater  Germany) .  Herr  Rohrbach  has 
arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that  it  might  be  in  the 
interest  of  Germany  to  establish  friendly  relations 
with  France;  it  would  then  be  easier  to  master 
England,  the  great  object  of  hatred.  In  this  con- 
nection he  expresses  the  following  view :  "There 
are  now  but  two  Kulturs,  in  the  strict  spiritual 
sense  of  the  word:  to  wit,  the  German  and  the 
French!"  Both  these  German  gentlemen,  then, 
are  quite  convinced  that  of  an  English  Kultur  there 


164     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

can  be  no  question;  but  as  Herr  Rohrbach  has 
discovered  that  Germany  may  be  able  to  profit 
by  the  help  of  France,  he  has  also  discovered  that 
French  Kultur  is  not  to  be  despised.  The  two 
learned  gentlemen,  in  any  case,  cannot  both  be 
right:  and  German  science  ought  to  have  made 
such  childish  utterances  impossible. 

Harnack's  address  in  the  book  in  question  shows 
that  in  him  the  scholar  has  been  swallowed  up  in 
the  fanatical  nationalist. 

He  begins  with  Geibel  and  his  prophecy  that 
enemies  to  the  East  and  the  West  should  rise 
against  Germany,  and  immediately  proceeds  to 
add  that  "also  our  so-called  kinsfolk  the  English 
have  unblushingly  joined  our  enemies;  ay,  Eng- 
land is  leading  the  tremendous  world-war  against 
us,  and  doing  so  from  base  competitive  envy,  and 
by  piratical  methods!"  Then  comes  the  turn  or 
"the  lying  Press  which  circulates  the  stupidest,  the 
most  insane  calumnies  and  lies  against  us."  But 
the  prophecy  has  already  been  fulfilled,  that  "He 
who  spoke  on  the  battlefield  of  Leipzig,  He  shall 
again  speak  in  the  thunder."  "We  now  stand,  two 
months  after  the  commencement  of  the  war,  after 
great  victories,  in  the  land  of  the  enemy,  thrusting 
their  lies  back  into  their  throats."  He  is  so  con- 
fident of  victory,  that  he  proposes,  on  the  con- 
clusion of  peace,  to  add  a  special  milliard  to  the 
bill,  as  a  compensation  for  their  lies.  He  then 
enlarges  on  what  Germany  has  already  gained.  It 
is  amusing,  after  these  many  months,  to  read  the 
following   account   of  the   campaign   in   France: 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  165 

"We  have  in  August  in  many  battles — it  was  one 
single  marching  battle — won  victory  upon  victory, 
until  we  reached  the  outskirts  of  the  hostile  capital. 
In  September  we  have,  without  defeat,  partly  with- 
drawn our  troops  [Thus  this  champion  of  the 
truth  describes  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  !],  in  order 
to  weld  all  our  forces  together,  for  a  decisive 
battle,  in  an  iron  fighting-line  from  Arras  and 
Noyon  to  Verdun.  We  have  now  had  breathing 
time  before  the  annihilating  battle."  Well,  they 
have  now  had  a  good  year  and  a  half  of  breathing 
time,  and  have  got  no  further.  The  address  is, 
on  the  whole,  singularly  unintelligent.  He  has 
found  no  better  formula  for  the  spirit  of  progress 
than  the  threadbare  "Liberty,  Equality,  Fratern- 
ity," a  motto  which  he  is  bound  to  admit  was  not 
made  in  Germany. — What  must  be  won,  is  a  good 
peace,  and  the  conquest  of  the  spirit  of  caste, 
which  he  is  sorry  to  have  to  confess  is  rather  bad 
in  Germany,  especially  in  North  Germany.  [He 
shrinks  from  uttering  the  word  Prussia!]  He 
will  also  briefly  touch  upon  the  fact  that  all  sorts 
of  frivolities  will  have  to  be  renounced,  etc.,  etc. 
In  conclusion :  "This  war  has  shown  and  will  show 
— this  we  dare  say  without  arrogance — that  the 
nation  which  develops  the  greatest  moral  strength 
and  has  perfected  the  severest  discipline  will  gain 
the  victory."  From  first  to  last  the  address  is  a 
glorification  of  "our  magnificent  army,"  and  is, 
as  a  whole,  absolutely  unworthy  of  Professor 
Harnack. 

I  will  draw  attention  to  but  one  more  of  this 
band  of  Professors,  the  theologian,   Deissmann, 


i66     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

who  makes  some  interesting  remarks  in  his  ad- 
dress on  War  and  Religion. 

"Blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  revile  you,  and 
persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil 
against  you  falsely,  for  my  sake."  I  quite  under- 
stand F.  Naumann's  confession  that  these  words 
have  meant  so  much  to  him  at  the  present  time. 
They  certainly  do  not  refer  literally  to  our  actual 
position;  between  "for  my  sake"  and  for  "Ger- 
many's sake"  there  is  some  difference.  Yet  we 
commit  no  sacrilege  when  we  apply  this  divine 
paradox  to  the  position  of  our  Fatherland,  and 
see  something  blessed  in  being  given  over  to  the 
hatred  of  the  world.  These  gospel  utterances  are 
never  literal  precepts,  but  spiritual  messages,  and 
the  spirit  has  something  to  say  to  every  age.  In 
the  same  way  there  is  another  ancient  gospel  say- 
ing which  bursts  the  bonds  of  its  original  histor- 
ical meaning  and  takes  new  wings  in  the  storm  of 
the  world-war,  a  saying  which  we  may  well  take 
as  the  consecration  of  our  German  mission:  "Ye 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth !  ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world!" 

"The  French  Ambassador  in  London  is  under- 
stood to  have  said  at  a  banquet  that  so-called 
scholars  and  professors  have  preached  the  re- 
ligion of  barbarism.  His  words — I  venture  that 
paradox — pretty  nearly  express  my  thought. 
What  people  beyond  the  Channel  call  barbarism, 
history  will  some  day  call  primitive  strength.  In 
this  age  which  has  witnessed  the  most  gigantic 
mobilisation  of  physical  and  mental  forces  which 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  we  certainly  proclaim — 


GERMAN  PROFESSORS  167 

no,  it  is  not  we  who  proclaim  it,  but  it  reveals 
itself — the  religion  of  power!" 

I  shall  only  add  the  interesting  information 
which  Deissmann  gives,  that  in  answer  to  an  en- 
quiry at  his  bookseller's  as  to  what  books  were 
mostly  bought  by  soldiers  called  to  the  front,  he 
was  told:  The  New  Testament,  Goethe's  Faust, 
and  Nietzsche's  Zarathustra!  This  shows  how 
the  Nietzschean  gospel  of  might  as  the  highest 
right,  his  "revaluation  of  all  values,"  competes,  in 
modern  "Christian"  Germany,  not  only  with 
Goethe's  Faust,  but  even  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment. This  is  a  very  strong  testimony  against 
those  Germans  who  would  fain  make  us  believe 
that  only  an  insignificant  minority  have  been  in- 
fected by  the  ideas  of  Bernhardi  and  Neitzsche. 
The  fact  throws  a  very  surprising  and  significant 
flashlight  upon  the  mental  condition  of  Germany. 

The  book  from  which  I  have  taken  the  above 
quotations  was,  I  repeat,  designed  by  its  authors 
to  form  a  special  monument  of  the  German  spirit 
during  the  war.  For  the  sake  of  the  German 
people  themselves,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will 
not  endorse  the  authors'  conception  of  their  own 
work.  I  must,  however,  confess  that  this  hope 
appears  to  be  a  somewhat  vain  one,  when  the 
book  is  viewed  in  connection  with  all  the  other 
utterances  I  have  collected,  so  widely  prevalent 
does    its    spirit    appear   to    be.      Nevertheless    I 


168     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


cannot  believe  that  the  book  will  have  the  imper- 
ishable vital  power  which  has  distinguished 
Fichte's  Addresses  to  the  German  Nation,  written 
a  hundred  years  ago,  in  the  days  of  Germany's 
disaster. 


CHAPTER  XII 

W.    HERRMANN 

IN  this  series  of  German  professors,  the  name 
of  W.  Herrmann  of  Marburg,  professor  of 
theology,  must  not  be  omitted.  He  is  no  less 
famous  than  the  rest,  and  has  exercised  consider- 
able influence  in  Scandinavia,  especially  in  Sweden. 
He  has  written  a  pamphlet  on  The  Turks,  the 
English,  and  we  German  Christians.  As  a  classic 
example  of  what  a  German  scholar  can  write  at 
the  present  time,  it  cannot  possibly  be  omitted 
from  this  documentation. 

The  publication  is  inspired  by  a  definite  set  of 
circumstances.  In  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the 
Germans  were  loud  in  their  complaints  that  their 
opponents  had  placed  heathens  in  the  field  against 
them.  [Pastor  Tolzien  was  even  so  incautious 
as  to  make  it  a  grievance  that  they  employed  Mo- 
hammedans !]  Then  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Ger- 
mans themselves  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the 
Turks,  the  worst  foes  of  Christianity,  an  alliance 
for  which  they  had  evidently  been  working  for  a 
long  time.  This  of  course  might  look  a  little 
strange,  and  at  first  did  stagger  a  good  many 
Germans.     It  thus  became  necessary,   as  in  the 

169 


iyo    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

case  of  Belgium,  to  procure  a  good  conscience  for 
the  German  nation.  This  is  what  Professor  Herr- 
mann has  undertaken  to  do.  We  Germans,  he 
says,  can  cast  in  our  lot  with  the  Turks  with  the 
best  possible  conscience.  To  prove  this  he  en- 
larges upon  two  points:  "We  can,  as  Christians, 
understand  and  respect  their  faith,  and  the  path 
that  lies  before  us  is  the  same  as  theirs." 

As  regards  the  first  point,  it  seems  to  be  con- 
tradicted by  the  ancient  hatred  between  Chris- 
tians and  Turks.  But  this  rests  upon  a  great 
misunderstanding.  It  is  true  that  the  Mohamme- 
dans do  not  know  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament, 
and  Mohammed  did  not  understand  Jesus.  Yet 
they  are  in  some  respect  superior  to  us.  It  is  a 
stupendous  feat  that  this  religion  should  in  so 
short  a  time  have  spread  from  India  to  Granada. 
[We  can  easily  understand  that  the  colossal  nature 
of  this  feat  should  appeal  to  the  German  mind.] 
Another  point  is  that  the  Turks  have  been  unified 
by  their  religion,  the  Germans  have  not.  The 
main  thing,  however,  is  this,  that  the  faith  of 
the  Turks  assures  them  that  God  ordains  every- 
thing, and  is  the  reality  in  everything.  The  word 
Islam  means  exactly  the  same  as  the  Biblical  word 
faith:  that  is,  complete  self-surrender.  As  Goethe 
said,  when  this  became  clear  to  him:  "Then  we 
are  all  of  us,  in  reality,  believers  in  Islam!"  But 
Mohammed  also  maintains,  that  we  are  free  and 
responsible  for  what  we  do,  wherefore  God  will 
judge  us  all;  and  in  this,  too,  we  agree  with  him. 
On  no  account  must  one  suppose  that  the  Moham- 


W.  HERRMANN  171 

medan  belief  in  God  is  only  a  belief  in  an  inflexible 
fate.  No,  it  is  also  a  belief  in  God's  wisdom  and 
goodness.  There  is  certainly  this  difference,  that 
only  by  looking  to  Jesus  can  we  Christians  find 
courage  to  hold  such  a  faith.  Nevertheless  we 
must  maintain  that  we  stand  near  to  the  Turks 
in  our  faith — only  they  have  not  recognised  the 
right  foundation  of  the  faith  they  hold.  But  we 
Germans  can  help  them  to  that. 

The  other  point  in  which  Germans  and  Turks 
can  meet  is  this,  that  their  future  moves  along  the 
same  lines.  We  Germans  can  obey,  so  can  the 
Turks.  In  this  respect  we  both  differ  from  the 
English.  When  the  English  attack  German  mili- 
tarism, because  it  makes  the  community  a  soulless 
mechanism,  the  reason  is  simply  this,  that  the 
English  do  not  know  what  moral  obedience  means. 
In  their  opinion,  a  man  can  only  subject  himself 
to  what  can  help  him  in  the  attainment  of  his 
wishes.  It  is  therefore  precisely  they  themselves 
who  are  liable  to  become  machines,  because  they 
allow  themselves  to  be  driven  by  their  desires. 
They  have  no  idea  that  freedom  consists  in  free 
obedience  to  what  is  good.  But  just  because  we 
believe  in  unconditional  obedience,  we  Germans 
feel  ourselves  at  one  with  the  Turks,  and  divided 
from  the  English.  The  Englishman  thinks  that 
he  possesses  righteousness,  inasmuch  as  he  always 
follows  his  desires  and  lets  himself  be  enticed  by 
whatever  is  pleasant.  But  we,  Germans  and 
Turks,  do  not  think  that  we  possess  a  righteous 
life,  but  constantly  endeavour  to  achieve  it,  by 
sacrifice,  by  self-abnegation,  by  the  exercise  of 
strenuous  will.     We  see  how  barren  the  spiritual 


172     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

life  of  England  has  become.  Amongst  its  states- 
men there  are,  indeed,  artful,  cool  men  of  busi- 
ness, and  reckless  men  of  violence,  down  to  the 
criminal  type  [No  doubt  Sir  Edward  Grey],  but 
not  a  single  deeply  pious  man,  capable  of  appeal- 
ing to  the  hidden  springs  within  his  people.  This 
is  the  reason  why  the  mastery  of  England  was 
felt  as  a  nightmare  by  the  world.  But  now  that 
Germans  and  Turks  are  to  have  their  say,  things 
will  be  different. 

England  held  the  mastery  of  the  seas  and 
thereby  of  the  world.  But  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  a  new  aim  has  been  pro- 
posed, and  that  by  the  German  nation.  The  free- 
dom of  the  seas  shall  now  be  won,  and  with  it 
freedom  for  the  intercourse  of  the  nations  and 
for  the  nations  themselves.  Then  for  the  first 
time  will  the  idea  of  good  prevail  in  politics,  in 
the  comity  of  the  nations.  Thus  this  war  becomes 
a  Christian  war;  for  we  Germans  are  fighting  in 
order  that  all  others  as  well  as  ourselves  may  be 
allowed  freely  to  develop  their  strength  and  abil- 
ities within  mankind.  If  we  win,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  world  will  at  last  be  freed  from  the  fan- 
tastic folly  of  the  thought  that  one  nation  should 
rule  over  all  others.  Therefore  it  is  wrong  to 
scoff  at  "our  forty-two  centimetres  Christianity." 
Our  good  iron  here  fulfils  an  end  ordained  by 
God. 

But  when  once  the  English  prejudice  is  rooted 
out,  the  idea  that  a  nation  can  only  be  happy  by 
sucking  the  blood  of  others,  as  England  does  in 
India  and  Egypt,  it  must  not  be  said  that  this  is 
a  victory  for  the  German  spirit.     The  German 


W.  HERRMANN  173 

nation  is  certainly  at  the  present  time  the  instru- 
ment of  the  spirit;  but  it  is  on  the  spirit  itself 
that  all  depends,  the  right  fear  of  God,  the  will 
to  serve,  faithfulness  to  one's  mission.  And  this 
spirit  we  also  find  in  the  Turks.  It  is  this  which, 
in  the  last  analysis,  unites  us.  It  must  also  be  ad- 
mitted that  we  have  common  interests :  in  the  first 
place,  the  fight  against  English  oppression,  and 
secondly,  the  mutual  advantages  to  be  attained 
on  Turkish  ground.  The  Turks  need  leaders  in 
the  work  of  Kultur,  and  as  the  country  has  room 
for  another  sixty  millions  of  inhabitants,  there 
are  splendid  prospects  for  the  youth  of  Germany. 
But  the  essential  thing  is  that  we  should  unite  with 
the  Turks  in  that  quiet  spirit  which  manifests  itself 
in  the  fear  of  God  and  the  will  to  serve.  To 
this  world-power  every  one  will  be  attracted  who 
does  not  exclusively  pursue  his  own  profit,  but 
wishes  to  serve  the  development  of  humanity. 
But  this  can  first  be  achieved  when  the  cancer 
has  been  cut  out,  when  England's  dominion  of 
violence  over  mankind  has  been  brought  to  an 
end. 

So  much  for  Professor  Herrmann.  His  dis- 
course assuredly  abounds  in  deep  wisdom,  and  I 
cannot  doubt  that  it  has  awakened  profound  won- 
der in  the  reader.  It  is  certainly  a  glorious  vista 
which  is  here  opened  out  for  us :  Germany  and 
Turkey  in  harmonious  union,  inspired,  in  all  essen- 
tials, by  the  same  human  and  religious  ideals,  both 
working  for  the  welfare  of  mankind  with  an 
unselfishness  hitherto  unknown  in  the  world's  his- 


174     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


tory,  and  moved  by  only  one  desire :  to  serve 
others.  This  is  exactly  what  we  want.  The  pre- 
vious history  of  both  Germany  and  Turkey  testify 
so  clearly  that  in  them  dwells  the  spirit  of  true 
humility,  and  the  will  to  serve.  I  have  always 
thought,  that  there  was  a  marked  spiritual  kinship 
between  the  Germans  and  the  Turks;  it  has  inter- 
ested me  to  find  this  view  confirmed  by  a  German. 

One  or  two  comments,  however,  may  not  be 
out  of  place.  Professor  Herrmann  is  absolutely 
silent  as  to  the  cruelty  with  which  the  Turks — at 
any  rate  according  to  the  historical  conception 
hitherto  prevalent — have  treated  other  nations : 
the  Bulgarians,  whom  Russia  helped,  the  Greeks 
whom  England,  France,  and  Russia  helped,  the 
Armenians  whom  no  one  has  helped.  Neither 
does  he  mention  the  sensuality  which  pervades 
the  whole  life-ideal  of  the  Turks,  as  well  as  their 
expectation  of  Paradise.  This  silence  cannot  for 
a  moment  be  supposed  to  proceed  from  the  fact 
that  in  this  respect  there  is  no  material  differ- 
ence between  Germans  and  Turks.  A  few  words 
of  explanation  would  have  been  welcome. 

There  is  another  thing  to  be  considered.  When 
the  Turkish  Empire  in  due  time  becomes  the  home 
of  sixty  millions  of  hopeful  young  German  Kultur- 
bearers,  I  wonder  whether  the  Turks  will  really 
be  so  overjoyed?  And  yet,  when  I  bethink  my- 
self, it  is  a  foolish  question.  When  it  is  duly 
explained  to  them  that  the  Germans  have  only 
come,  as  they  always  do,  filled  with  the  kindest 


W.  HERRMANN  175 

intentions,  and  eager  to  be  of  service  and  make 
the  most  unselfish  sacrifices — to  say  nothing  of 
freeing  the  Turks  from  English  oppression — then 
they  cannot  but  recognise  that  this  was  the  one 
thing  lacking  to  their  happiness. 

I  shall  now  conclude  my  documentation  with  the 
most  remarkable  production  I  have  so  far  met 
with — an  effort  which  indubitably  puts  the  finish- 
ing touch  to  the  whole. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  STORY  OF  GERMANY'S  PASSION 

TNthe  Allgemeine  Evangelische-lutherische  Kir- 
■*■  chenzeitung  of  September  17,  19 15,  an  article 
appears,  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Preuss  of  Erlangen, 
licentiate  of  theology,  under  the  title  of  Germany's 
Passion — "Passion"  being  used  in  the  sense  in 
which  we  apply  the  word  to  the  sufferings  of 
Christ. 

He  begins  by  relating  the  substance  of  a 
pamphlet  of  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  in 
which  the  appearance  of  Luther  at  Worms  is 
compared  with  the  story  of  Christ's  sufferings,  in 
a  manner  which  proves  that  German  taste  and 
German  Kultur  as  we  know  them  have  their  roots 
far  back  in  history.  But  Dr.  Preuss  takes  it  seri- 
ously and  maintains  that,  in  view  of  Germany's 
imitation  of  Christ,  we  have  a  Biblical  right  to 
draw  such  parallels.     Then  he  continues: 

"The  repetition  which  we  note,  in  general 
traits,  in  the  life  of  an  individual  Christian,  the 
repetition  of  the  Passion  of  Christ  discernible  in 
the  story  of  the  greatest  of  Germans,  may  be  seen 
again  at  the  present  time,  in  the  lot  of  the  German 
people  as  a  collective  personality.  We  assert  the 
view   that   the   similarity   in   outward   conditions 

176 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  177 

shows  that  what  once  happened  to  Luther,  is  now 
happening  to  our  people :  it  is  experiencing  a  rep- 
etition of  the  Passion  of  Christ.  This  assertion 
we  shall  first  support  by  a  reference  to  details, 
and  then  we  shall  see  what  deductions  can  be 
drawn  from  it. 

"Little  by  little  it  dawns  upon  us,  with  a  deep 
and  moving  conviction,  how  in  the  story  of  our 
people's  present  suffering,  all  the  types  reappear, 
which,  in  the  story  of  Christ's  sufferings,  grouped 
themselves  around  him.  Of  course  the  repetition 
is  only  to  be  found  in  the  types,  not  in  the  histor- 
ical details.  But  these  types  are  so  distinct  in 
their  reappearance,  that  there  is  no  mistaking  the 
similarity. 

"The  Russian  Tsar  plays  the  deplorable  part 
of  Pilate,  who,  contrary  to  his  better  knowledge 
and  his  conscience,  simply  for  fear  of  losing  his 
power,  delivers  up  the  innocent  one,  and  declares 
in  favour  of  the  guilty  Barabbas — Serbia,  which 
shows  a  surprising  likeness  to  its  Biblical  proto- 
type, for  he  too  'had  in  a  certain  sedition  made 
in  the  city  committed  murder'  (Luke  xxiii.  19) . 

"In  the  same  way  as  the  cowardly  Pilate  and 
the  light-minded  and  frivolous  Herod  had  become 
friends  in  their  confederacy  against  Jesus,  'for 
before  they  were  at  enmity  between  themselves' 
(Luke  xxiii.  12),  thus  the  greatest  antitheses,  the 
orthodox,  absolutist  Russia,  and  the  republican, 
atheistic  France  joined  hands  against  Germany. 

'The  Sanhedrim,  the  representative  body  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  was  the  motive  force  in  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ.  The  Gospel  tradition  repeatedly 
states  that  it  was  from  envy  the  Sanhedrim  sought 


178    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

to  take  the  life  of  Christ.  What  but  envy  of 
Germany  has  made  England  the  evil  motive  force 
in  the  whole  war?  It  acts  precisely  the  part  of 
the  Sanhedrim — and  it  also  resembles  in  its  re- 
ligious character  the  leaders  of  the  Jews,  at  least 
the  Pharisaical  section  of  them.  We  have  only 
to  recall  its  zeal  for  the  law  (the  Sabbath!),  its 
strict  ecclesiasticism,  which  does  not  exactly  avoid 
the  corners  of  the  streets  (Matt.  vi.  5),  its  mis- 
sionary fanaticism,  to  which  the  lamentation  of 
Jesus  is  applicable  (Matt,  xxiii.  15)  :  'Woe  unto 
you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!  for  ye 
compass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and 
when  he  is  made  ye  make  him  twofold  more  the 
child  of  hell  than  yourselves.'  I  maintain  that 
the  brutal  destruction  and  the  attempted  vilifica- 
tion of  German  missions  and  missionaries  plainly 
show  that  it  is  not  missionary  work,  as  such,  which 
has  been  dear  to  English  piety.  The  sin  of  hypoc- 
risy is  also  their  sin.  This  is  not  a  Pharisaical 
charge  against  Pharisees,  but  a  verdict  that  can  be 
proved  historically!  English  piety  is  the  piety 
of  figures — exactly  as  the  Pharisees  made  piety 
a  question  of  arithmetic:  'I  fast  twice  a  week' — 
that  makes  104  fast  days  a  year.  The  law  ordains 
but  one,  consequently  I  have  a  surplus  of  103  days. 
'Is  it  enough  to  forgive  seven  times?'  That  is 
the  calculating  spirit  of  the  Pharisee.  The  British 
Bible  Society  distributes  annually — how  often 
have  we  not  had  to  hear  it — x  millions  of  Bibles 
and  parts  of  the  Bible,  and  during  the  last  hundred 
years  y  millions.  England  gives  z  millions  of 
marks  every  year  for  missionary  purposes;  that 
makes  n  marks  per  head,  etc.     English  piety  is 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  179 

quantitative  like  the  Jewish-Pharisaical.  It  is 
helpless  and  entirely  without  judgment,  when  it  is 
a  question  of  qualitative  values,  as  the  senseless 
patchwork  of  their  church  ritual  shows. 

"The  power  of  the  Sanhedrim  extended  far 
beyond  the  Judaism  of  Palestine.  Its  authority 
also  applied  to  the  oversea  Jews  who  voluntarily 
submitted  to  it.  The  hand  and  the  spirit  of  the 
new  Sanhedrim  also  extend  beyond  the  seas. 

"  'In  thee  have  they  taken  gifts  to  shed  blood, 
and  thou  hast  forgotten  me,  saith  the 
Lord  God'  (Ezekiel  xxii.  12). 

"Next  comes  the  new  Judas.  'Then  one  of 
the  twelve,  called  Judas  Iscariot,  went  unto  the 
chief  priests,  and  said  unto  them,  What  will  ye 
give  me  and  I  will  deliver  him  unto  you?  And 
they  covenanted  with  him  for  thirty  pieces  of 
silver.  And  from  that  time  he  sought  opportunity 
to  betray  him'  (Matt.  xxvi.  14-16).  For  thirty 
pieces  of  silver!  The  new  Judas  is  understood  to 
have  done  it  for  thirty  milliards;  the  Judas  who 
'eateth  bread  with  me  hath  lifted  up  his  heel 
against  me'  (John  xiii.  18).  The  only  difference 
between  the  old  Judas  and  the  new  is,  that  the 
former  went  out  'immediately,'  while  the  latter 
waited  three-quarters  of  a  year;  but  perhaps  it 
may  tally  better  by  and  by,  in  what  the  Scripture 
relates  as  to  the  end  of  Judas ! 

"Nor  do  we  lack  the  false  witnesses  mentioned 
in  the  story  of  Christ's  Passion.  We  read:  'The 
chief  priests  and  elders,  and  all  the  council,  sought 
false  witness  against  Jesus,  .  .  .  but  found 
none'  (Matt.  xxvi.  59,  60).  How  eagerly  have 
not  our  opponents  sought  for  a  pretext  to  make 


i8o    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

war  upon  us !  How  have  they  not  calumniated 
us !  But  the  false  witnesses — we  do  not  know  in 
either  case  how  much  they  received — did  not  agree 
with  one  another.  In  the  same  way  our  adver- 
saries' campaign  of  lies,  that  devil's  claw  which 
has  encircled  the  whole  world,  is  branded  by  this 
characteristic  curse  of  mendacity. 

"But  also  the  weak  and  pitiful  part  of  Peter  is 
reproduced:  it  is  represented  by  the  scholars  and 
artists  who,  in  order  that  they  may  continue  to 
warm  themselves  at  the  fire  of  our  foes,  deny  all 
the  hospitality  and  spiritual  benefactions  which 
have  placed  them  under  an  obligation  of  gratitude 
to  Germany!  Even  the  Waldenses,  who  have 
eaten  our  bread,  have  made  deplorable  haste  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  part  of  Peter. 

"But  to  complete  the  picture  we  must  also  deal 
with  its  reverse :  friends  are  not  lacking  either. 
The  thief  who  expiated  a  sinful  past  by  his  re- 
pentance in  the  last  hour,  and  was  outwardly  sub- 
jected to  the  same  suffering  as  our  Lord,  is  the 
type  of  the  Turkish  nation  which  now  puts  Chris- 
tianity (outside  Germany)  to  shame.1  And  the 
centurion  who,  full  of  admiration,  witnessed  the 
Saviour's  suffering  on  the  Cross,  is  the  prototype 
of  the  few  neutrals  who  have  remained  sufficiently 
independent  to  pronounce  a  moral  verdict.  Who 
can  help  thinking,  in  this  connection,  of  the 
knightly  figure  of  the  Northern  explorer,2  who 

1  This  was  written  before  Bulgaria  came  in.  Is  it, 
perhaps,  the  other  thief?  Or  does  Japan,  or  Belgium, 
play  that  part?  The  silence  as  to  the  two  latter  nation- 
is  remarkable. 

2  Sven  Hedin. 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  181 

made  more  wonderful  discoveries  at  our  front 
than  amongst  the  half-forgotten  tribes  of 
Asia ! 

"It  is  very  tempting  to  extend  the  parallel  from 
the  individual  types  to  a  number  of  details :  to 
refer,  for  instance,  to  the  fearful  Gethsemane- 
hour  of  our  people,  just  before  the  war  broke  out 
— who  can  ever  forget  that  1st  of  August? — 'O 
my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  thus  cup  pass  from 
me!' — or  to  mention  the  earthquakes  which,  from 
below,  have  followed  menacingly  in  the  wake  of 
the  war,  from  the  crime  of  Serajevo  onward. 
Have  we  not  also  felt  the :  'I  thirst'  during  the 
long  period  of  drought  which  jeopardised  our 
harvest  and  thereby  our  victory?  The  graves, 
too,  have  opened  and  the  holy  ones  of  our  nation 
have  come  forth — Luther,  Bismarck,  Arndt,  and 
Blikher — and  'have  appeared  to  many.' 

"We  must  not,  however,  be  lured  into  the 
flowery  paths  of  fantasy,  though  they,  too,  may 
open  out  many  an  edifying  vista." 

After  all  this  the  writer  asks,  "What  deductions 
are  we  now  to  draw?" — and  he  replies  that  "the 
German  people  have  lived  again  through  the  out- 
ward circumstances  of  the  Passion  of  our  Lord — 
in  a  unique  manner."  But  "in  this  lies  first  and 
foremost  an  incomparably  deep  religious  mean- 
ing." He  then  extends  his  parallel  to  "the  servant 
of  the  Lord"  (Isaiah  xl.)  who  suffers  in  the  place 
of  many.  In  the  same  way  as  Israel,  the  servant 
of  the  Lord,  foreshadowed  the  suffering  Messiah, 
thus  are  the  German  people  a  subsequent  image 
of  Him.  The  German  nation  is  now  the  suffering 
servant  of  God  that  has  to  bear  the  sins  of  many 


182     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

— it  is  suffering  for  the  benefit  of  Christianity, 
nay,  of  mankind. 

"It  is  surely  clear  that  we  are  fighting  for  the 
continued  existence  of  true  Christianity.  Where 
else  is  it  to  be  found?  In  orthodox  Russia,  whose 
petrified  and  petrifying  Christianity  has  shown 
itself  utterly  unable  to  educate  a  nation,  as  is 
proved  by  its  barbarities,  both  from  above  and 
from  below?  Or  in  Roman  Catholic  Italy,  whose 
Jesuitical  education  allows  one-half  of  the  nation 
to  be  buried  in  heathen  superstition,  and  drives 
the  other  half  into  the  arms  of  the  most  frivolous 
atheism?  Or  in  church-persecuting  and  religion- 
persecuting  France?  Or  in  Calvinistic  England 
and  America? Thus  Germany  stands  en- 
tirely isolated  in  a  religious  sense  as  well,  as  did 
Israel  in  the  world  of  the  nations,  and  as  did  our 
Lord  in  His  Passion.  But  in  each  case  the  suffer- 
ing of  the  one  is  the  salvation  of  the  many." 

Are  we  saying  too  much?  Is  this  view,  per- 
haps, "too  English"?  No,  the  English  hold  that 
they  are  literally  descended  from  the  ten  tribes 
( !).  But  we  Germans  do  not  base  our  relation 
to  Israel  on  any  such  fleshly  foundation.  The 
German  people  are  the  spiritual,  the  religious 
parallel  of  the  people  of  Israel,  they  are  "the  true 
Israel  begotten  by  the  Spirit."  "It  was  the  hidden 
meaning  of  God  that  He  made  Israel  the  fore- 
runner (Vordenter)  of  the  Messiah,  and  in  the 
same  way  He  has  by  His  hidden  intent  designated 
the  German  people  to  be  His  successor  (Nach- 
deuter).  If  what  we  see  is  surprising,  our  sur- 
prise must  not  betray  us  into  attempting  to  explain 
it  away." 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  183 

Dr.  Preuss  brings  his  discourse  to  a  conclusion 
in  the  following  undeniably  surprising  and  effec- 
tive manner: 


"But  if  the  story  of  Germany's  suffering  is  really 
parallel  with  the  story  of  Christ's  suffering,  then 
we  may  venture  confidently  to  carry  the  parallel 
still  further,  and  look  forward  serenely  to  our 
Easter  victory.  For  'if  we  have  been  planted 
together  in  the  likeness  of  His  death,  we  shall  be 
also  in  the  likeness  of  His  resurrection'  (Rom.  vi. 
5) .  And  according  to  the  inner  logic  of  the  facts, 
our  enemies  must  also  play  their  parts  to  the  end, 
and  share  the  fate  which  befell  the  enemies  of 
Jesus.  They  will,  respectively,  share  the  fate  of 
Pilate,  who  lost  the  office  which  he  tried  to  save 
by  sacrificing  Jesus — of  Herod  Antipas,  who  was 
dethroned,  and,  on  Gallic  soil,  had  to  suffer  an 
inglorious  if  not  an  unnatural  death — of  Israel's 
tempters  who,  together  with  the  tempted,  perished 
in  the  flames  of  the  'burnt  up  city'  ( Matt.  xxii.  7 ) . 
Their  people  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation,  and  now, 
like  Ahasuerus,  wander,  never  resting,  over  the 
earth  they  wanted  to  possess.  Judas,  to  conclude, 
laid  hands  upon  himself  in  despairing  remorse. 
— ■  —  Our  foes  will  doubtless,  as  they  have  done 
hitherto,  continue  to  play  the  part  of  the  Sanhe- 
drim in  the  future,  and  try  to  detract  from  the 
miracle  of  our  victory,  by  explaining  it  away,  or, 
in  other  words,  by  lying  (Matt,  xxviii.  11-13). 

"But  the  Easter-victory  will  burn  up  the  feet 
of  the  lies.  And  death  is  swallowed  up  in  vic- 
tory." 


184    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

With  this,  I  think,  we  have  reached  the  cul- 
minating point.  Oh,  sancta  simplicitas !  Oh, 
exquisite  naivete ! 

It  must  be  noticed  that  the  author  of  this  pro- 
duction is  not  satisfied  to  have  it  regarded  as  a 
mere  fantastic  parallel;  we  are  to  accept  it  as  a 
legitimate  result  of  theological  science !  Dr. 
Preuss  really  believes  that  he  has  traced  the  most 
recondite  threads  of  the  historical  development. 
It  gives  one  something  to  reflect  upon.  It  is  cer- 
tainly a  caricature,  an  unintentional  one;  but,  as 
in  all  successful  caricatures,  there  is  something 
typical  about  it.  It  throws  a  curious  light  upon 
the  modern  German  scientific  spirit,  indicating,  as 
it  does,  a  tendency  to  the  naive  employment  of  a 
highly-developed  acuteness,  combined  with  a  pe- 
culiar lack  of  the  sense  of  reality,  which  leads 
people  to  think  they  have  "proved"  the  most  in- 
credible assertions.  The  world  is  enormously 
indebted  to  German  science,  but  that  does  not 
mean  that  we  should  accord  it  uncritical  admira- 
tion, especially  when  historical  science  is  in  ques- 
tion, and  most  especially  when  German  interests 
are  involved.  Then,  more  often  than  not,  an 
impartial  sense  of  truth  is  wanting. 

This  article  was  published  without  any  critical 
remark  on  the  editor's  part;  but  it  was  an  impossi- 
bility that  all  Germans  could  swallow  it  whole. 
Nevertheless  it  was  allowed  to  remain  uncontested 
for  a  couple  of  months.  At  last  a  courageous 
man  took  heart  and  gave  vent  to  his  misgivings; 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  185 

the  man  was  a  South  German,  Pastor  Romer  of 
Stuttgart.  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  be 
able  to  quote  this  evidence  of  critical  sense  among 
the  Germans.  He  says  straight  out  that  he  does 
not  approve  of  the  comparison  between  Luther  at 
Worms  and  Jesus,  and  continues  as  follows : 

"The  sore  tribulation  of  our  people  must  as- 
suredly draw  our  eyes  to  the  Crucified,  but  we 
must  not — even  at  a  distance  and  in  all  humble- 
ness— place  ourselves,  by  way  of  comparison,  at 
His  side,  but  in  penitent  prayer  and  intercession 
lie  at  His  feet,  because  God's  judgment  is  passing 
over  us.  And  the  narrower  the  circle  is,  and 
perhaps  will  be  more  and  more,  which  in  this  war 
acknowledges  the  rod  of  God's  'chastisement  and 
wrath,'  the  more  necessary  it  becomes  that  this 
small  flock  of  discerning  spirits  should  gather  to- 
gether at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  in  penitence,  faith 
and  prayer  for  themselves  and  for  the  Fatherland. 

"What  causes  us  concern  is  the  self-confident 
attitude  which  is  spreading  among  our  people, 
even  amongst  Protestant  Churchmen,  who  say: 
'We  thank  Thee,  O  God,  that  we  Germans  are 
not  like  other  nations,  thieves,  unjust,  or  even  as 
these  English  are.'  Something  of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  the  article  in  question.  Of  'English 
piety'  he  speaks  as  slightingly,  as  English  voices 
speak  of  'Germany's  piety!'  He  goes  too  far, 
however,  when  he  judges  what  English  mission- 
ary work  has  compassed  during  a  century,  and 
what  the  world  has  to  thank  the  British  Bible 
Society   for,    simply   by   the    shortcomings   which 


186    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

attach  to  this  work,  as  to  all  human  "effort.  It 
is  an  expression  not  only  of  the  English  national 
spirit,  but  also  of  a  profound  spirit  of  Christian 
discipleship.  Nor  does  the  curt  manner  in  which 
'Calvinism'  is  set  down  as  the  accomplice  of 
heathen  superstition,  capitalism,  petrified  Chris- 
tianity and  English  arrogance,  befit  the  reverence 
we  owe  to  God's  witnesses  and  confessors,  even 
if  we  are  more  apt  to  look  at  the  dark  side  of 
them,  than  to  see  what  they  have  given  to  the 
world  of  divine  strength  work'ng  through  frail 
human  instruments. 

"What  seems  to  me  most  dangerous  is  this,  that 
the  writer  does,  indeed,  duly  recognise  the  fatal 
conceit  of  a  large  number  of  pious  English  in 
regarding  their  nation  as  the  chosen  people  of 
God  and  the  true  heirs  of  the  blessings  of  Israel, 
but  immediately  adds  that  the  German  people  are 
in  fact  'the  true  Israel  begotten  by  the  Spirit.'  The 
author  looks  upon  the  German  nation  as  'an  indi- 
vidual' which,  in  spite  of  all  inequalities  and  short- 
comings in  detail,  yet,  from  a  spiritual  and  re- 
ligious point  of  view,  represents  a  uniform  mag- 
nitude. I  have  often  before  asked  myself,  and 
now  do  so  again:  'Why  do  people  in  Protestant 
circles,  as  if  by  a  conspiracy,  overlook  the  fact 
that  we  are  from  a  religious  point  of  view  a  di- 
vided people,  and  why  are  they  silent  about  the 
active  part  played  by  Roman  Catholicism  and 
Judaism,  especially  at  the  present  moment,  in  the 
German  national  spirit?'  We  are  not  a  Protestant 
people,  nor  are  we  strictly  speaking  a  Christian 
people.  Christianity  has  a  home  amongst  us,  and 
a  little  flock  which  God  knows  and  which  is  be- 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  187 

gotten  of  His  Spirit  is  present  among  the  people 
and  works  as  a  leaven  in  the  people.  To  what 
extent  the  people  have  been  leavened  thereby  God 
alone  knows;  that  this  leaven  may  exist,  may  in- 
crease, and  may  be  purified  and  strengthened,  is 
what  we  fight  for;  but  whether  and  to  what  extent 
it  will  be  accepted  or  rejected  by  the  national 
spirit  in  the  future,  that  is  the  unanswered  ques- 
tion as  to  the  fate  of  our  people.  But  the  German 
people,  as  such,  and  as  a  whole,  neither  is,  nor 
desires  to  be,  a  people  of  disciples,  nor  the  salt 
of  the  earth,  nor  the  light  of  the  world,  on  whom 
it  should  depend  whether  true  Christianity  should 
continue  to  exist  on  earth.  That  is  a  matter  for 
'the  Church  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  which 
will  abide  for  ever,'  and  this  holy  community  is 
not  limited  to  any  one  nation,  but  consists  of  the 
people  of  God,  to  be  found  in  every  nation  (even 
among  the  wicked  English  and  faithless  Ital- 
ians!), who  by  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments  are 
begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  live  by  Him,  and 
will  continue  to  live  until  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 

"But  no  people  on  earth  have  such  a  promise, 
except  Israel.  According  to  Holy  Scripture  we 
are  'Gentiles,'  and  only  the  now  prevalent  mis- 
conception of  the  unique  position  which  God  ex- 
clusively bestowed  upon  the  people  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  and  for  the  world  of  nations,  and 
for  which  God  has  vouched  to  the  end  of  time,  can 
make  it  possible  to  blend  nationalistic  wishes  and 
dreams  with  questions  of  Christianity.' 

"It  cannot  possibly  be  fitting  to  draw  a  parallel 
between  Christ  and  a  people  of  our  own  time, 
even  though  it  be  our  dear  German  people.  There 


i88     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

is  but  one  likeness  between  Jesus  and  the  com- 
munity whom  He  has  sanctified;  this  is  proved 
precisely  by  the  passages  of  Scripture  quoted  by 
the  author  (Matt.  xx.  23;  Rom.  vi.  5;  Phil.  iii. 
10). 

"Germany,  therefore,  is  neither  living  through 
a  'Good  Friday'  nor  can  it  look  forward  to  an 
'Easter.'  One  must  first  strip  these  words  of  their 
clear  and  sacred  meaning,  in  order  to  be  able  to  use 
them  as  rhetorical  ornaments,  which  is  done  now 
and  then,  for  instance  in  sermons.  Christ  suffered 
and  died,  innocent,  in  our  place,  and  for  our  sake. 
We  always  suffer  as  sinners,  and  in  this  sense  the 
two  thieves  on  the  Cross  are  the  true  parallel  for 
us.  The  words  'we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our 
deeds'  apply  to  the  German  people  in  this  war, 
just  as  Israel,  when  wrongfully  overpowered  by 
Babylon,  was  therein  suffering  the  judgment  of 
God.  One  must  never  veil,  even  in  poetic  rhetoric, 
this  decisive  contrast  between  the  Passion  of 
Christ  and  the  suffering  and  death  of  sinners. 

"And  the  comparison  becomes  confused,  inas- 
much as  it  is  not  thought  out  to  its  conclusion. 
None  of  those  who  have  made  use  of  this  simile 
have  dared  to  carry  it  forward  to  the  decisive 
point:  Christ  not  only  suffered,  He  died  and  was 
buried.  That  Germany  should  be  buried,  that 
is,  wiped  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  God  forbid! 
But  if  one  does  not  wish  to  look  into  these  depths, 
the  great  words  about  'Easter'  have  no  clear  mean- 
ing and  no  inward  force. 

"Perhaps  I  have  too  sharply  emphasised  what 
seemed  to  me  dangerous  and  misleading  in  the 
article,  which  in  spite  of  my  protest,  beginning 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  189 


with  the  title  and  continuing  to  the  last  sentence, 
has  interested  me  greatly,  because  it  awakens  a 
multitude  of  thoughts  in  the  reader  (!).  But 
should  the  respected  author  consider  my  criticism 
too  one-sided,  I  think  we  must  both  submit  to  the 
same  verdict  of  one-sidedness,  in  spite,  or  on 
account,  of  the  divergence  of  our  views." 

The  coating  of  sugar  on  this  bitter  pill  might 
have  been  dispensed  with.  Dr.  Preuss  of  course 
does  not  keep  silent  under  the  rebuke  : 

He  seems  somewhat  surprised  at  these  objec- 
tions, as  he  has  received  several  expressions  of 
approval  from  men  eminent  in  the  ecclesiastical 
world  (!).  He  cannot  deny  that  the  German 
nation  does  not  consist  exclusively  of  Christians 
or  of  Lutherans,  but  he  looks  upon  the  Lutheran 
Christians  as  the  sacred  kernel  in  the  German 
people.  God  has  in  Luther  practically  chosen  the 
German  people,  and  that  can  never  be  altered, 
for  is  it  not  written  in  Romans  xi.  29,  "For  the 
gifts  and  calling  of  God  are  without  repentance." 
Of  course  the  German  people  in  themselves  have 
not  deserved  this  calling:  it  proceeds  from  the 
sheer  grace  of  God,  so  we  can  maintain  it  without 
any  Pharisaism  whatever.  The  story  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  Germany  is,  of  course,  not  of  the  same 
worth  as  the  story  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ;  but 
in  the  same  way  as  a  parallel  can  be  drawn  be- 
tween Christ  and  the  individual  believing  soul,  so 
can  a  parallel  also  be  drawn  between  Christ  and 
a  people  highly  blessed  by  Him.  It  is  not  at  all 
a   question   of  the   German  Empire,   but  of  the 


igo     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

German  people  in  a  religious-ideal  sense.  That 
there  is  a  difference  in  worth  between  the  different 
nations  he  will  most  emphatically  maintain. 

This  is  a  nice  way  out  of  it !  He  actually  tries 
to  make  out  that  he  did  not  mean  "the  German 
Empire,"  the  German  people  as  a  political  unity! 
The  whole  of  the  wonderful  exposition  distinctly 
turned  upon  the  German  Empire  which  is  set  upon 
by  its  neighbours — for  it  was  certainly  not  the  be- 
lieving Lutherans  they  wanted  to  attack — and  the 
main  point  was  distinctly  to  show  that,  as  Jesus 
rose  from  the  dead,  so  must  the  German  Empire 
vanquish  its  enemies,  whom  the  writer  triumph- 
antly doomed  to  destruction.  Had  he  really  had 
the  little  believing  flock  of  German  Lutherans  in 
his  mind,  he  must  have  seen  that  their  "Easter" 
would  be  entirely  independent  of  outward  political 
happenings;  whether  it  be  victory  or  defeat,  they 
would  surely  hold  their  own  and  be  able  to  do 
their  allotted  work.  In  that  case  there  would  be 
some  sense  in  the  parallel,  which,  as  he  stated  it, 
became  one  great  blasphemy. 

Herr  Romer  does  not  use  this  last  expression, 
but  he  means  it,  and  his  protest  does  him  honour. 
It  is  interesting  in  more  ways  than  one.  It  fully 
confirms  what  I  have  maintained,  that  within  the 
German  people  there  reigns  a  widespread  Phari- 
saical spirit,  a  spirit  like  that  which  inspires  all 
the  sermons  and  discourses  which  I  have  quoted. 
It   establishes   the   fact  that  Germany  is  looked 


GERMANY'S  PASSION  191 

upon  by  many  Germans  as  the  land  of  God's 
chosen  people.  Herr  Romer  says  that  "many" 
hold  the  same  view  as  Dr.  Preuss,  who,  on  his 
part,  does  not  forget  to  mention  the  approval 
which  he  has  met  with.  Herr  Romer  himself 
must  be  responsible  for  the  opinion  that  the  Eng- 
lish are  guilty  of  the  same  Pharisaical  self-valu- 
ation. For  myself,  I  have  read  much  English  liter- 
ature, and  much  English  war-literature,  but  I 
have  never  found  a  single  example  of  the  blas- 
phemous and  malignant  utterances  which  are  to 
be  found  by  the  hundred  in  German  literature. 
None  the  less  must  we  be  grateful  to  Herr  Romer, 
because  he  has  shown  us  that  there  are  actually 
some  people  in  Germany  who  are  not  only  unable 
to  share  in  such  thoughts,  but  who,  when  they  are 
carried  too  far,  protest  against  them. 

Such  voices  may  be  heard,  but  they  are  very 
few.  I  have  indeed  come  upon  only  one  more  who 
is  worthy  of  mention.  We  will  let  him  have  the 
last  word. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

F.    W.    FORSTER 

Tjp  W.  FORSTER  is  the  name  of  a  famous  peda- 
■*■  •  gogue  who  for  many  years  has  lived  in  Swit- 
zerland, though  he  was  not  born  there,  and  is  now 
a  professor  in  Munich.  He  has  written  a  capital 
little  book  entitled:  The  Youth  of  Germany  and 
the  World  War.  His  utterances  are  of  interest 
in  three  respects :  first,  for  his  strong  arraignment 
of  the  arrogance  of  his  countrymen,  next  for  his 
protest  against  the  terrible  incitement  to  hatred, 
and  lastly  for  his  criticism  of  the  new-German 
view  of  the  war. 

With  regard  to  the  first  point,  Herr  Forster 
writes : 

"A  melancholy  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
German  spirit  behind  the  front,  may  be  headed: 
German  self-praise.  The  spokesmen  of  this  Ger- 
man self-praise  are  not  only  the  well-known  types 
whose  aggressive  self-assurance  has  done  so  much 
to  deprive  the  German  nature  of  that  sympathy 
and  respect  on  the  part  of  cultured  foreigners 
which  it  really  deserves,  but  also  many  men  of 
a  superior  order,  who,  in  the  glorification  of  their 
own  people,  put  away  from  them  that  sense  of 

192 


F.  W.  FORSTER  193 

shame  which  they  would  otherwise  feel  as  to  every 
sort  of  self-praise."  He  thinks  that  the  Germans 
at  the  front  unlearn  this  bad  habit.  A  non-com- 
missioned officer  writes  that  he  detests  the  boast- 
ful self-esteem  of  the  German  who  talks  as  if  he 
alone  were  capable  of  bringing  any  nobility  or 
righteousness  to  the  world,  and  was  indebted  to 
no  one  for  anything.  Forster  lays  great  stress  on 
the  fact  that  German  Kultur  itself  had  fallen  low 
in  materialism  and  thirst  for  sensual  enjoyment. 
"We  Germans  also  bear  our  part  of  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  present  tragedy  of  mankind.  We 
have  certainly  not  in  any  way  wished  £or  or  caused 
the  war,  but  we  have  not  done  our  duty  in  the 
service  of  the  moral-religious  ideal.  We  have 
with  complacency  quoted  the  words  of  the  poet: 
'By  the  German  nature  shall  the  world  once  more 
be  healed,'  but  we  have  forgotten  the  stern  obli- 
gation which  speaks  to  us  in  these  words.  The 
world  cannot  be  healed  by  German  industry  and 
German  technical  skill.  We  have  sadly  failed  to 
take  the  lead  in  high-mindedness  and  in  ever- 
present  consciousness  of  sacred  things,  and  our 
reward  is  the  world-conflagration.  The  youth  of 
Germany  have  certainly  of  late  years  made 
progress  in  many  respects,  but  they  have  been  far 
too  much  given  to  self-admiration  in  the  guise  of 
admiration  for  the  greatness  and  glory  of  their 
race.  Pray  to  God,  that  we  may  not  become  pre- 
sumptuous!" Herr  Forster  foresees  that  with 
victory  and  after  the  victory  classes  of  people  will 
arise  in  Germany,  who  have  themselves  suffered 
nothing  and  sacrificed  nothing,  nor  witnessed  the 
nobility  and  suffering  of  the  enemy,  but  who  will 


194     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

then  exploit  Germany's  triumph  without  restraint 
and  without  Kultur:  weaklings,  whose  self-esteem 
has  been  mightily  swelled  by  our  new  mortars,  so 
that  they  think  they,  too,  are  now  bound  to  open 
their  mouths  to  the  width  of  forty-two  centimetres, 
and  he  who  fails  to  do  so  is  no  patriot ! 

The  next  point  is  the  hatred  of  other  nations 
which  in  Germany  has  been  inflated  to  an  insane 
degree,  especially  with  regard  to  England.  On 
this  point,  too,  I  will  quote  some  of  Forster's  most 
notable  remarks : 

He  says  that  one  great  danger  of  the  war  for 
those  who  remain  at  home  is  this,  that  they  allow 
themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  their  hatred  of 
the  enemy,  whereas  such  hatred  of  a  whole  nation, 
and  the  hardness  and  one-sidedness  of  judgment 
which  it  entails,  is,  he  says,  incompatible  with 
Germany  dignity  and  German  Kultur! — [They 
ought  to  be,  but  facts  make  it  deplorably  clear 
that  they  are  not.]  But  Forster  calls  upon  his 
countrymen  to  study  in  the  high  school  of  justice, 
and  learn  to  master  their  unbridled  emotions. 
One  must  show  justice  to  one's  enemy:  "England 
not  only  gave  us  people  like  Sir  Edward  Grey, 
scoundrels  and  hypocrites,  who  have  this  war  on 
their  conscience;  England  has  also  given  us  the 
Salvation  Army,  has  led  us  to  invaluably  lofty 
points  of  view  in  regard  to  the  labour  question 
and  social  work,  and  has  tempered  manners  in 
party  politics — things  which  we  must  never  forget, 
and  in  memory  of  which  we  shall  once  again  take 
the  hand  that  is  offered  to  us."     "Try,  on  some 


F.  W.  FORSTER  195 

sleepless  night,  to  light  the  light  of  Christ  in 
thy  soul,  and  for  once  to  love  thine  enemy.  Think 
of  glorious  William  Booth  and  of  all  the  English 
greatness  and  goodness  embodied  in  him;  think 
of  Florence  Nightingale,  the  holy  heroine,  whose 
example  as  a  pioneer  of  mercy  to  this  day  binds 
up  countless  wounds;  think  of  Carlyle,  Ruskin, 
Toynbee,  and  of  the  mighty  powers  of  conscience 
which  spoke  through  them,  and  gave,  and  will 
continue  to  give,  great  gifts  to  us  Germans;  think 
with  sorrow  of  the  great  nation  which  has  become 
so  sadly  alienated  from  these  noble  ones,  and  do 
not  forget  that  one  must  honour  a  people  with 
such  gifts  even  in  its  degradation.  Do  not  let  us 
be  Pharisees!  England  has  fallen  low  by  reason 
of  her  colonial  world-power  with  all  its  tempta- 
tions. I  wonder  if  we  should  have  resisted  such 
temptations?  From  this  let  us  take  very  serious 
warning  with  regard  to  our  future  colonial  posi- 
tion." 

The  third  point  which  should  be  noticed  in 
Forster's  book  is  his  estimate  of  the  war.  This 
is  perhaps  the  most  important,  for  he  practically 
attacks  what  we  understand  as  the  new-German 
militarism.  The  attacks  from  without  upon  Ger- 
man militarism  have — so  far  as  I  have  seen — led 
Germany's  intellectual  leaders,  even  those  who 
purported  to  represent  liberalism,  to  take  up  a 
strongly  defensive  attitude,  on  the  plea  that  mili- 
tarism is  the  corner-stone  of  Germany's  inner  and 
outer  greatness.  It  has,  they  allege,  the  power 
of  creating  a  spirit  of  discipline,  through  which 


196     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

the  individual  learns  to  feel  himself  an  integral 
part  of  the  nation,  and  to  subordinate  himself  to 
its  interests.  But  militarism  is,  in  fact,  far  more 
than  this.  It  is  at  the  same  time  a  glorification 
of  war,  as  the  great  heaven-appointed  instrument 
of  progress,  which  cleanses  the  nation  of  all  that 
is  low  and  evil,  and  brings  in  its  train  the  richest 
blessings.  It  is  against  this  idea  that  Forster 
directs  his  most  vigorous  blow. 

It  is  true  he  maintains  that  war  will  always  have 
some  good  effects.  It  will  infallibly  show  what 
conceptions  of  life  are  of  real  value,  inasmuch  as 
hollow  phrases  cannot  survive  its  ordeal  by  fire. 
He  hopes  that  the  war,  with  its  evocation  of 
heroism,  will  bring  the  heroic  element  in  Chris- 
tianity once  more  into  the  front  line,  and  thus 
open  out  for  the  younger  generation  a  new  under- 
standing of  Christianity.  Not  that  Christianity 
should  be  absorbed  by  the  war  spirit:  he  admits 
that,  during  the  past  months,  strangely  unchristian 
words  have  been  uttered,  and  that  heavenly  truth 
has  been  perverted  with  a  view  to  earthly  interests. 
Verily  Christ  is  against  the  war  and  above  the 
war!  He  expresses  the  greatest  surprise  at  the 
manner  in  which  many  German  leaders  of  Kultur, 
in  newspapers  and  periodicals,  wallow  in  unlimited 
war-enthusiasm.  The  effects  of  war  upon  moral- 
religious  Kultur  are  being  vaunted  in  a  perfectly 
insane  manner,  which  must  completely  confuse 
our  soldiers.  They  have  gone  out  to  fight  for  a 
lasting  peace  for  their  Fatherland  and  the  world, 
a  peace  in  which  German  Kultur-work  can  develop 


F.  W.  FORSTER  197 

undisturbed  in  every  direction.  And  now  they 
hear  from  a  thousand  tongues  how  unfruitful  and 
miserable  peace  really  is,  and  what  inexhaustible 
springs  of  blessings  flow,  on  the  contrary,  from 
war!     What  is  it,  then,  they  are  fighting  for? 

He  further  protests  against  the  view  that  it  is 
war  itself  which  creates  the  values  which  unques- 
tionably come  to  the  surface  in  war-time.  War 
does  not  create  them,  but  is  the  occasion  of  their 
appearing.  The  war  has  shown  with  how  much 
self-discipline  and  idealism  the  German  people 
are  endowed — qualities  which  must  be  considered 
as  the  fruit  of  their  honest  labour  in  times  of 
peace.  It  must  here  be  remarked  that  many  be- 
lieving Christians  have  taken  up  a  position  which 
is  altogether  incomprehensible  and  inconsistent 
with  the  spirit  of  the  faith  which  they  profess — 
not  so  much  in  their  valuation  of  the  German  war, 
its  justification  and  its  heroism,  as  in  their  gen- 
eral estimate  of  war  and  its  relation  to  Christian 
doctrine.  These  "war-intoxicated  Modernists" 
have  discoursed  upon  the  effect  of  war  on  religion 
and  character  in  such  a  manner  that  one  feels 
tempted  to  say:  Well,  if  this  is  really  so,  the  war, 
to  be  sure,  may  be  a  material  evil,  but  it  is  never- 
theless the  one  true  source  of  ideal  life,  ay,  it 
can  do  what  the  God-man  could  not  do,  and  is 
therefore  a  more  powerful  messenger  from  God 
than  the  Founder  of  the  Christian  religion.  Log- 
ically, then,  instead  of  the  love  preached  in  the 
Gospel,  the  great  pedagogue  War  should  con- 
stantly be  let  loose  upon  humanity.  People  speak 
as  though  it  were  the  war  and  not  Christ  that  had 
begotten  the  true  spirit  of  sacrifice.     No,  war  is 


198    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

and  will  remain,  on  the  whole,  the  great  destroyer, 
both  materially  and  spiritually.  It  blunts  the 
feelings,  it  brutalises,  and  paves  the  way  for  all 
low  and  unclean  passions.  The  fact  that  God  is 
able  to  bring  good  out  of  evil  does  not  justify  us 
in  calling  evil  good,  or  employing  evil  as  a  means 
acceptable  to  God.  The  Corsican  vendetta  is 
undoubtedly  a  finer  school  of  bravery  than  our 
present  legal  system,  but  that  is  no  reason  for 
preserving  or  adopting  the  institution  of  the  ven- 
detta. People  talk  deplorable  nonsense  about  all 
that  the  war  is  supposed  to  have  done :  in  three 
days,  they  say,  it  accomplished  what  years  of 
peaceful  endeavour  had  failed  to  effect.  People 
really  seem  to  think  of  the  war  as  a  sort  of  deus 
ex  machinal  No,  we  shall  assuredly  find  out  that 
it  is  patient  labour  in  time  of  peace  that  bears 
lasting  fruit;  wait  until  the  war  is  over,  and  then 
let  us  see  how  it  will  fare  with  the  concord  and 
piety  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  which  the  war  is  sup- 
posed to  have  created  in  a  moment. 

In  the  matter  of  clearness,  this  utterance  leaves 
nothing  to  be  desired.  Herr  Forster's  charges 
are  substantiated  by  the  documents  I  have  quoted, 
and  they  in  their  turn  confirm  everything  I  have 
said  and  written  about  this  question.  If  there  is 
ever  to  be  any  hope  of  a  peaceful  communion  be- 
tween the  nations,  each  individual  nation  must  com- 
pletely abandon  its  arrogant  self-valuation  in  com- 
parison with  others,  and,  though  a  people  may 
not  be  bound  to  close  its  eyes  to  the  possible 
merits  of  the  race  to  which  it  belongs,  it  must 


F.  W.  FORSTER  199 

abandon  all  idea  of  founding  upon  such  merits 
any  claim  of  right  as  against  other  nations,  as 
though  the  alleged  superiority  of  a  nation  en- 
titled it  in  any  way  to  rule  over  others,  and  force 
upon  them  its  so-called  higher  Kultur. 

Forster's  exclamation,  "Let  us  not  be  Phari- 
sees," is  essentially  the  right  word  in  the  right 
place.  One  cannot  but  rejoice  to  hear,  at  last,  a 
voice  of  some  authority,  which,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  highest  German  culture,  has  ventured 
to  oppose  itself,  in  the  most  dignified  manner,  to 
the  entire  new-German  trend  of  thought.  His 
utterances,  as  every  attentive  reader  must  have 
observed,  have  of  course  very  important  limita- 
tions. They  are  founded  on  the  ineradicable  con- 
viction, common  to  all  Germans,  that  the  war  is 
the  outcome  of  a  shameful  conspiracy  against  Ger- 
many, that  Germany  is  entirely  without  blame, 
that  the  German  mode  of  warfare  is,  both  tech- 
nically and  morally,  far  above  that  of  their  oppo- 
nents, and  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the 
German  victory.  But  within  the  limits  imposed 
by  these  prepossessions,  he  certainly  goes  against 
the  stream.  And  we  should  particularly  appre- 
ciate the  fact  that,  while  the  great  majority  of 
German  writers,  as  we  have  seen,  rival  each  other 
in  inciting  to  hatred,  either  directly  by  the  most 
unbridled  invectives,  or  indirectly  by  speaking  of 
their  opponents  in  the  most  contemptuous  and 
malignant  manner,  we  here  find,  no  mere  empty 
and  feeble  protest  against  hatred  in  general,  but 


2oo    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

an  open  acknowledgment  of  what  Germany  owes 
to  her  most  hated  opponent,  England,  in  the 
sphere  of  social  progress  and  spiritual  life.  It 
remains  to  be  seen  whether  Herr  Forster's  rebuke 
will  be  of  much  avail.  One  cannot  but  feel  some- 
what sceptical,  for  this  hatred  has  attained  im- 
mense strength,  and  its  roots  lie  deep.  But  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  place  on  record  that  a 
strong  opposition  to  it  is  still  possible.  From 
these  remarks  the  transition  is  easy  to  my  final 
summing  up. 


CHAPTER  XV 

REFLECTIONS    IN    CONCLUSION 

ON  the  title-page  of  this  book,  and  in  many  of 
its  chapters,  I  have  used  the  term,  new-Ger- 
man spirit.  This  must  not  be  overlooked.  The 
spirit  with  which  I  have  dealt  is  not  the  whole 
spirit  of  Germany.  This,  I  am  sure,  cannot  have 
escaped  the  attentive  reader.  There  is  another 
spirit  in  Germany,  and  when  I  have  found  it  ris- 
ing up  in  protest  against  the  aforesaid  tendency 
of  thought,  I  have  loyally  quoted  the  utterances 
in  question.  It  would  be  an  entire  misunderstand- 
ing to  suppose  that  my  intention  was  to  condemn 
and  brand  the  German  spirit  and  German  Kultur 
generally. 

I  entertain,  on  the  contrary,  in  many  respects 
a  profound  admiration  for  the  German  people. 
They  have  in  truth  given  to  the  world  great  men, 
and  many  gifts  of  the  first  value.  They  possess 
excellent  qualities :  no  one  can  deny  their  diligence, 
their  frugality,  their  ability,  their  power  of  organ- 
isation. And  it  is  an  equally  undisputable  fact 
that  old-German  thought  is  marked  by  deep  sin- 
cerity and  idealism.  We  have  learnt  much  from 
the  Germans,  and  will  gladly  learn  more  from 

20 1 


202     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

them  in  the  future.  But — the  spokesmen  of  new- 
Germanism  entirely  overlook  the  fact  that  German 
thought  and  Kultur,  in  their  German  form,  are 
suitable  only  for  the  German  nation — that  no 
nation  can  profitably  accept  the  Kultur-values  of 
a  foreign  people,  except  in  perfect  freedom,  so 
that  it  can  assimilate  what  it  has  need  for,  and 
what  harmonises  with  its  nature.  They  seem 
unable  to  understand  that  it  can  never  be  a  Kultur- 
mission  to  thrust  or  force  Kultur  upon  another 
nation.  Their  faulty  conception  of  the  nature  of 
freedom  forms  a  serious  limitation  in  their  Kultur. 
Furthermore,  they  overlook  the  fact  that  Kultur  is 
also  to  be  found  in  other  countries,  that  there  are 
other  nations  possessed  of  independent  thought 
and  of  a  Kultur  as  characteristic  and  as  legitimate 
as  their  own.  They  speak  as  if  the  whole  earth, 
on  its  knees,  should  thank  the  German  nation  for 
the  gifts  its  Kultur  has  bestowed  upon  the  world; 
but  one  hears  never  a  word  about  any  reciprocal 
gratitude  offered  by  the  Germans  to  other  na- 
tions for  gifts  bestowed  by  their  genius  and  abil- 
ity. I,  for  my  part,  have  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  English  and  French  thought  and  Kultur  stand 
fully  as  high  as  the  German.  They  lack  some  of 
the  merits  of  Germanism,  but  in  return  they  poss- 
ess merits  of  their  own.  French  clearness,  the 
English  sense  of  natural  balance  ("common 
sense"),  for  example,  are  points  in  which  the 
superiority  of  these  two  nations  manifests  itself. 
The  Germans  insist  that  we  shall  admire  their 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     203 

great  philosopher  Kant :  well,  we  all  do ;  but  what 
would  Kant  have  been  without  Rousseau  and 
Hume?  One  never  hears  the  Germans  express 
any  gratitude  for  that.  All  things  considered,  I 
am  inclined  to  place  English  Kultur  above  the 
German;  others,  no  doubt,  think  differently;  but 
on  that  point  every  one  has  surely  a  right  to  his 
opinion.  One  thing  alone  is  perfectly  clear,  name- 
ly, that  the  claim  of  the  Germans  to  be  the  leaders 
and  models  in  every  department  of  life  must  be 
summarily  dismissed.  French  and  English  science 
can  fully  rival  German  science;  French  art  and 
taste,  as  all  the  world  knows,  are  far  superior  to 
German;  where  does  one  find  in  the  recent  imag- 
inative literature  of  Germany  names  surpassing 
those  of  latter-day  England  and  France?  It 
would  be  altogether  vain  to  deny  that  the  contribu- 
tion to  literature  of  the  despised  and  insulted  Rus- 
sian spirit  has  of  late  years  fully  rivalled,  in  its 
depth  and  wealth  of  colour,  any  similar  produc- 
tions of  the  German  mind.  The  German  lamenta- 
tions over  spiritual  decadence  in  Germany  since 
1870  are  surely  well  founded;  the  self-idolatry, 
worship  of  power  and  prosperity  and  increasing 
riches,  have  in  many  ways  trampled  out  the  life 
of  the  spirit;  materialism  in  the  realm  of  thought 
has  made  great  headway,  and  one  has  noted  with 
astonishment  to  what  an  extent  the  emptiest  and 
shallowest  ideas  have  been  advertised  into  ac- 
ceptance among  a  nation  which  is  supposed  to  be 
famous  for  its  thoroughness.     I  am  thinking  es- 


204    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

pecially  of  Haeckel's  so-called  "monism,"  which 
has  obtained  the  widest  circulation,  but  to  which 
Germans  of  more  penetrating  mind  have  denied 
all  philosophical  and  scientific  worth. 

The  value  of  the  old-German  thought  I  fully 
admit;  but  I  contest  the  value  of  the  new-German 
thought,  at  all  events  when  viewed  from  the  stand- 
point of  other  nations.  It  may  suit  the  German 
nation  in  its  present  phase,  but  for  all  others  it 
looms  as  a  danger  and  a  threat.  This  is  suffi- 
ciently proved  by  the  evidence  adduced  in  the  fore- 
going pages;  but  I  should  like  in  conclusion  to  look 
a  little  more  closely  into  the  two  main  points 
dealt  with  in  this  volume,  which  are  certainly  the 
most  dangerous  and  most  unpleasing  features  of 
the  new-German  spirit — to  wit,  the  hatred  of  and 
contempt  for  other  nations,  and  the  boundless 
glorification  of  "the  German  nature." 

As  regards  the  first  point,  I  shall  principally 
concern  myself  with  the  hatred  for  England.  What 
real  grounds  have  the  Germans  for  this  feeling? 
They  themselves  think  they  have  many;  I  will 
mention  some  of  the  most  important. 

In  the  first  place  they  maintain  that  England's 
method  of  warfare  violates  international  law — a 
point  which  really  calls  for  no  discussion.  The 
nation,  which  on  its  own  confession,  began  the 
war  with  the  violation  of  an  international  treaty, 
which  torpedoed  the  Lusitania  and  introduced  the 
use  of  gas  in  war,  to  mention  only  a  few  items, 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    205 

lives  in  such  a  glass  house  that  it  cannot  with  de- 
cency throw  stones  at  others. 

There  is  another  matter  which  plays  an  ex- 
tremely important  part,  and  is  largely  used  for 
inflaming  the  hatred  against  England — the  so- 
called  English  campaign  of  lies.  We  have  seen 
that  Professor  Harnack  wanted  an  extra  milliard 
of  war  indemnity  under  this  head  alone.  This 
"campaign  of  lies"  has  in  the  very  highest  degree 
aroused  the  moral  indignation  of  the  Germans. 
They  simply  tremble  with  rage  when  they  speak 
of  it.  There  is,  however,  something  very  mys- 
terious about  this  war  of  lies. 

The  English,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  cut 
the  German  Atlantic  cable.  No  one  can  wonder 
at  that;  it  is  surely  part  of  what  may  be  called  the 
natural  course  of  the  war.  The  belligerent  pow- 
ers, of  course,  do  everything  possible  to  isolate 
each  other;  but  the  Germans  say  the  English  did 
this  in  order  to  fill  the  world  with  lies,  and  pre- 
vent the  Germans  from  disseminating  the  truth. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  remarked  that  Eu- 
ropean countries  conterminous  with  Germany 
could  not  in  any  case  be  debarred  from  German 
truth,  by  the  cutting  of  the  American  cable.  Nor 
have  we  in  Denmark  observed  any  sign  of  this 
English  campaign  of  lies.  The  Germans,  on  the 
other  hand,  at  once  took  the  lead  with  a  propa- 
ganda so  aggressive  and  so  full  of  hatred  for  Ger- 
many's opponents,  that  it  entirely  overshot  its 
mark,  arousing  antipathy  instead  of  the  coveted 


2o6     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

sympathy — a  fact  which  the  Germans  themselves 
have  subsequently  admitted  and  deplored. 

But  I  altogether  contest  the  existence  of  this 
"campaign  of  lies."  I  doubt  whether  there  has 
been  any  other  foundation  for  it  than  the  wild  ru- 
mours which  sprang  up  in  the  early  days  of  the 
war,  and  which,  no  doubt,  found  their  way  to  some 
portions  of  the  Press.  Further,  one  must,  of 
course,  remember  that  the  events  of  the  war  are, 
in  each  country,  represented  as  favourably  as  pos- 
sible for  the  country  in  question.  Is  Wolff's  Bu- 
reau any  better  than  the  others,  I  wonder?  Has 
the  defeat  on  the  Marne  ever  been  openly  ad- 
mitted in  the  German  Press?  Neither  side,  prob- 
ably, has  absolutely  clean  hands.  Yet  I  should 
not  venture  to  express  any  opinion  on  this  point 
if  I  could  not  fall  back  upon  a  testimony  the  au- 
thenticity of  which  is  to  me  unquestionable.  It  is 
that  of  Professor  W.  Sanday,  of  Oxford,  whose 
excellent  book,  The  Meaning  of  the  War,  is 
equally  remarkable  for  knowledge  and  for  sobriety 
of  statement.     He  writes  as  follows: 

"The  Germans  are  never  weary  of  denouncing 
everything  that  appears  in  the  British  Press  as 
'lies.'  It  is  true  that,  just  at  the  beginning  of 
things,  when  all  the  nations  engaged  in  the  war 
were  embarking  upon  a  comparatively  new  ex- 
perience, for  which  they  were  ill  prepared,  the 
Press  of  all  the  belligerents  was  thrown  out  of 
gear,  and  many  wild  rumours  were  admitted  with 
insufficient  criticism.     But  that  state  of  things  did 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     207 

not  last  long.  I  believe  that  our  own  Press  has 
done  its  best  to  tell  the  truth ;  and  in  this  respect, 
allowing  for  the  responsibilities  of  the  state  of 
war,  I  am  not  prepared  to  bring  a  railing  accusa- 
tion against  our  enemies.  So  far  as  our  own  Press 
is  concerned,  I  believe  that  there  has  been,  not 
only  an  honest  endeavour  to  tell  the  truth,  but  an 
honest  endeavour  to  do  justice  to  those  who  are 
ranged  against  us.  I  have  constantly  seen  un- 
stinted tributes  to  the  wonderful  courage  and  self- 
devotion  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  to  the 
resolute  facing  of  sacrifices  by  the  civilians.  Those 
who  have  come  back  from  the  front  speak  with  all 
respect  of  the  German  as  a  fighting  man — and 
every  daring  feat  of  the  German  navy  has  been 
as  warmly  praised  in  this  country  as  in  Germany 
itself." 

This  is  why  I  am  very  doubtful  as  to  all  this 
German  talk  about  the  English  campaign  of  lies. 
What,  on  the  other  hand,  is  an  incontestable  fact 
is  the  furious  campaign  of  hatred,  contempt,  and 
what  one  cannot  but  call  calumny,  which  has  been 
set  on  foot  in  Germany  against  England.  It  has 
been  sufficiently  substantiated  in  the  foregoing 
pages.  One  can  find  nothing  of  this  kind  on  the 
English  side — in  any  case,  not  during  the  first  six 
months  of  the  war. 

Further,  it  is  maintained  on  the  part  of  Ger- 
many, that  the  Germans  are  a  peace-loving  nation, 
and  that  Germany  and  her  Kaiser  only  wished 
for  peace.  Germany  threatened  no  one,  only 
wanted  to  develop  in  peace;  but  England,  in  her 


2o8     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

rancour  and  spite,  would  not  suffer  that,  and  there- 
fore treacherously  planned,  during  many  years, 
the  onslaught  which  she  has  now  carried  out. 
The  whole  blame,  therefore,  rests  with  England. 
England  wades  in  blood.  England  leads  the  one 
nation  after  the  other  to  the  slaughter  house,  etc., 
etc. 

Here  I  must  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that  it 
is  quite  futile  to  discuss  this  question  of  motives. 
It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  attribute  the 
worst  possible  motives  to  one's  opponents,  and 
the  reader  will  no  doubt  have  observed  that  Ger- 
man war  literature  has  carried  this  art  to  a  high 
pitch  of  perfection.  Neither  from  the  English  nor 
the  French  side  have  I  seen  anything  approaching 
it.  These  nations  might  just  as  well  declare  that 
it  was  the  Germans  who  were  filled  with  envy  of 
the  rich  colonies  of  England  and  France,  and  had 
therefore  planned  and  thoroughly  prepared  for 
the  war.  But  this,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  they  have 
not  done.  Of  course,  they  lay  on  Germany  the 
responsibility  for  the  war;  but  they  endeavour  to 
be  fair  and  objective  in  their  polemics,  and,  above 
all,  they  conscientiously  try  to  draw  the  line  be- 
tween the  leading  circles,  whom  they  hold  responsi- 
ble, and  the  German  nation  as  a  whole,  of  which 
they  speak  with  all  respect.  Contrast  with  this  the 
examples  I  have  given  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
English  nation,  as  a  whole,  has  been  abused  and  re- 
viled by  the  Germans.  I  repeat  that  I  am  only  re- 
ferring to  the  war  literature  published  under  the 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    209 

author's  name,  by  cultured  and  intelligent  writers 
in  the  different  nations.  Of  other  publications  I 
take  no  account.  In  respect  to  gutter  papers  and 
caricaturists,  I  do  not  think  there  is  much  to  choose 
between  the  nations,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
German  Emperor  has  been  portrayed  may  often, 
no  doubt,  have  been  somewhat  unseemly.  People 
in  general,  even  intelligent  people,  seem  to  find  it 
difficult  properly  to  grasp  the  personality  of  the 
German  Emperor;  but  many  of  them  make  the 
sensible  admission:  we  do  not  understand  him.  I 
do  not  believe,  in  any  case,  that  the  inferior  Ger- 
man Press  has  treated  the  heads  of  the  hostile 
powers  any  better;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  manner  in  which  cultured  German  writers 
have  spoken  of  the  statesmen  of  their  opponents, 
more  especially  of  Sir  Edward  Grey,  is  so  stupid 
and  so  offensive  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
parallel  anywhere.  The  reader  will  require  no 
further  proofs  of  this. 

Next,  I  would  ask  whether  England  could  be 
expected  to  be  absolutely  convinced  of  Germany's 
love  of  peace?  I  shall  not  attempt  to  pass  judg- 
ment as  to  whether  Germany  in  fact  willed  war  or 
not — I  only  ask  whether  the  Germans  could  expect 
that  England  should  believe  in  their  honest  desire 
for  peace?  Must  one  not  admit,  when  trying  to 
view  the  question  from  an  English  standpoint, 
that  the  colossal  and  feverish  expansion  of  the 
German  fleet  could  not  but  be  regarded  by  Eng- 
land as  a  menace?     For  her  the  question  of  the 


210    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

command  of  the  sea  is  undeniably  a  question  of 
life  and  death.  All  England's  endeavours  to  ar- 
rive at  an  agreement  on  this  question  were  brought 
to  naught  by  Germany's  opposition. 

But,  apart  from  this,  were  there  not  in  Ger- 
many manifest  signs  of  an  increasingly  warlike 
temper?  On  the  German  side  it  has  been  main- 
tained that  not  a  single  person  in  Germany  thought 
of  war.  That  is  in  any  case  an  absurd  untruth. 
The  name  of  Bernhardi  alone  disproves  it.  But 
attention  may  further  be  drawn  to  numerous  facts, 
of  which  I  will  cite  one  or  two. 

In  the  year  19 13,  the  year  before  the  war,  a 
remarkable  book *  was  published  by  a  German- 
American  Professor,  O.  Nippold,  in  which  he  says : 

"Chauvinism  has  grown  enormously  in  Ger- 
many during  the  last  decade.  This  fact  makes 
the  strongest  impression  on  those  who  have  re- 
turned to  Germany  after  living  a  long  time 
abroad. — I,  myself,  can  say  from  experience,  how 
astonished  I  was,  on  returning  to  Germany  after 
a  long  absence,  to  see  this  psychological  trans- 
formation." 

And  further: 

"Hand  in  hand  with  this  outspoken  hostility  to 
foreign  countries  there  goes  a  one-sided  war-en- 
thusiasm and  war-mania  such  as  would  have  been 
thought  impossible  a  few  years  ago.  One  can 
only  deplore  the  fact  that  to-day  there  is  so  much 
irresponsible  agitation  against  other  States  and 
1  Der  deutsche  Chauvinismus. 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     211 

so  much  frivolous  incitement  to  war.  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that  this  agitation  is  part  of  a  delib- 
erate scheme,  the  object  of  which  is  gradually  to 
win  over  the  population,  and  if  possible  the  Gov- 
ernment, no  matter  by  what  means — even  by  the 
distortion  of  fact  and  malicious  slander — to  the 
programme  of  the  Chauvinists. 

These  people  not  only  incite  the  nation  to  war, 
but  systematically  stimulate  the  desire  for  war. 
War  is  pictured  not  as  a  possibility  that  may  oc- 
cur, but  as  a  necessity  that  must  come,  and  the 
sooner  the  better.  The  sum  and  substance  of  the 
teaching  of  the  Chauvinistic  organisations,  such  as 
the  Pan-German  League  and  the  German  De- 
fence Association,  is  always  the  same :  a  European 
war  is  not  merely  an  eventuality  for  which  we  must 
be  prepared,  but  a  necessity  at  which,  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  German  nation,  we  should  rejoice." 

Mr.  W.  H.  Dawson,  an  English  writer,  who 
is  thoroughly  acquainted  with  German  affairs,  and 
who  has  written  several  books  about  Germany, 
tells  us  in  his  last  book,1  that  he  has  lying  before 
him  a  pile  of  thirty-two  German  war-pamphlets, 
dating  from  the  years  1911-1913,  of  which  six 
refer  to  a  probable  war  with  England,  seven  to  a 
war  with  France,  and  nine  to  a  European  con- 
flagration. He  quotes  several  of  the  titles :  The 
Coming  World  War,  The  End  of  France  in  the 
Year  19 — ,  You  Want  Alsace  and  Lorraine?  We 
Will  Take  all  Lorraine  and  More!  etc. 

1  What  is  Wrong  with  Germany?     19 15. 


212     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 


One  of  the  leaders  of  the  association  known  as 
Young  Germany  wrote  in  their  official  organ  for 
October  1913 : 

"War  is  the  noblest  and  holiest  expression  of 
human  activity.  For  us  too  the  glad,  great  hour 
of  battle  will  strike.  Still  and  deep  in  the  Ger- 
man heart  must  live  the  joy  of  battle  and  the 
longing  for  it.  Let  us  ridicule  to  the  utmost  the 
old  women  in  breeches  who  fear  war  and  deplore 
it  as  cruel  or  revolting.  No,  war  is  beautiful.  Its 
august  sublimity  elevates  the  human  heart  beyond 
the  earthly  and  the  common.  In  the  cloud  palace 
above  sit  the  heroes  Frederick  the  Great  and 
Bliicher,  and  all  the  men  of  action — the  Great 
Emperor,  Moltke,  Roon,  Bismarck,  are  there  as 
well,  but  not  the  old  women  who  would  take  away 
our  joy  in  war.  When  here  on  earth  a  battle  is 
won  by  German  arms  and  the  faithful  dead  ascend 
to  heaven,  a  Potsdam  lance-corporal  will  call  the 
guard  to  the  door,  and  'old  Fritz,'  springing  from 
his  golden  throne,  will  give  the  command  to  pre- 
sent arms.  That  is  the  heaven  of  Young  Ger- 
many." 

Highly  interesting  is  also  the  following  quota- 
tion from  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung  of  January  5th, 
1912 : 

"Professions  that  the  German  nation  is  peace- 
ably minded  make  no  impression  in  Great  Britain, 
since  the  English  answer  us:  'We  are  willing 
enough  to  believe  it,  but  the  German  nation  does 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    213 

not  make  German  policy.  Its  policy  is  made  in  a 
quarter  which  is  absolute,  irresponsible,  and  in- 
calculable, and  for  that  reason  we  attach  merely 
a  platonic  and  never  a  practical  value  to  the  nation- 
al professions  of  peace.'  What  answer  are  we 
to  make  to  that?  Unfortunately,  it  is  the  fact, 
that  on  the  main  question,  whether  there  is  to  be 
war  or  peace,  neither  the  Reichstag  nor  the  Ger- 
man nation  has  a  word  to  say." 

Socialist  leaders,  too,  such  as  Scheidemann,  have 
expressed  the  same  views  in  the  Reichstag. 

Many  other  utterances  might  be  quoted: 
amongst  them  Maximilian  Harden's  unqualified 
assertion  that  Germany  willed  the  war;  but  the 
quotations  just  given  are  sufficient  to  show  the 
unreasonableness  of  the  demand  that  England 
should  rely  upon  German  declarations  of  the  Ger- 
man people's  desire  for  peace. 

Finally,  the  Germans  have  been  loud  in  their 
complaints  of  England's  shameless  treachery: 
England  has  betrayed  the  common  German  cause, 
the  common  Protestant  cause,  etc.,  etc.  This  is  a 
strange  word  to  use  in  this  connection.  England, 
in  the  years  preceding  the  war,  was  quite  ready 
to  enter  upon  an  understanding  with  Germany, 
but  the  two  States  could  not  agree  about  the 
terms.  But  where  no  promises  have  been  given 
there  can  be  no  talk  of  treachery.  England,  con- 
sequently, was  free;  and  when  great  conflicts 
arise  it  is  only  natural  that  each  country  should 
be  at  liberty  to  take  whatever  side  she  thinks  her 


214    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

honour  and  her  vital  interests  demand.  Thus  the 
charge  of  treachery  is  nothing  but  hysteria.  The 
Germans  maintain  that  the  Entente  was  formed 
with  the  malignantly  deceitful  aim  of  crushing 
Germany,  but  they  produce  no  proofs;  the  Eng- 
lish maintain  that  it  was  formed  only  for  peace- 
able purposes.  The  German  conceptions  of  King 
Edward  VII  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  are,  according 
to  English  views,  purely  fantastic.  The  careful 
investigations  made  by  Professor  Gilbert  Murray  1 
show  that  the  whole  of  the  available  diplomatic 
material,  beginning  with  the  year  1905,  when  Sir 
Edward  Grey  went  into  office,  prove  that  he  en- 
deavoured to  solve  the  diplomatic  problems  by 
peaceful  agreements.  When  the  Germans  are  un- 
able to  produce  any  proof  of  their  statements, 
they  cannot  expect  that  neutrals  shall  pay  any  heed 
to  them. 

Truth  compels  us  to  declare  that  there  is  no 
parallel  to  this  terrible  German  campaign  of  ha- 
tred and  contempt  in  the  war-literature  of  Eng- 
land, or  even  France — at  any  rate,  not  in  the  class 
of  literature  corresponding  to  that  from  which  my 
German  quotations  are  taken.  The  Germans,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  have  only  been  able  to  find  one 
single  serviceable  quotation,  which  is  therefore 
constantly  paraded:  namely,  an  extract  from  the 
Saturday  Review  dating  from  1897  (  !) — an  ut- 
terance which  certainly  forms  no  part  of  English 
war-literature. 

1  In  his  book  about  Sir  Edward  Grey,  19 15. 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     215 

As  the  war  has  dragged  on,  and  after  events 
like  the  torpedoing  of  the  Lusitania,  some  change 
may  have  taken  place ;  but  before  that  time  the 
English  confined  themselves  to  noting  the  fact  of 
German  hatred  with  unaffected  surprise,  and  draw- 
ing from  it  the  conclusion  that  every  sacrifice 
should  be  made  to  bring  the  war  to  a  successful 
end.  After  the  samples  we  have  seen  of  German 
hatred,  one  can  quite  well  understand  this  utter- 
ance of  Churchill's: 

We  are  facing  a  foe  who  without  the  slightest 
scruple  would  root  us  out,  man,  woman  and  child, 
by  every  method  at  his  disposal.  We  are  fighting 
against  a  foe  who  would  not  hesitate  for  a  mo- 
ment to  annihilate  every  soul  in  this  great  country, 
in  this  hour,  if  it  could  be  done  by  pressing  a  but- 
ton. We  fight  against  a  foe  who  would  think  as 
lightly  of  doing  this  as  would  a  gardener  of  de- 
molishing a  nest  of  wasps.  Let  us  admit  that  this 
is  a  new  fact  in  the  world's  history,  or  rather  it 
is  an  old  fact  sprung  from  the  terrible  abysses  of 
the  past.  We  fight  against  a  foe  of  this  kind,  and 
are  engaged  in  a  life-and-death  struggle.  To  lose 
would  mean  to  become  slaves,  or  at  best  to  be 
destroyed;  not  to  win  a  decisive  victory  would 
mean  to  have  this  misery  over  again  after  an  in- 
secure armistice,  and  having  to  fight  again,  prob- 
ably under  less  favourable  circumstances,  and 
perhaps  alone. 

The  final  verdict  must  consequently  be  this: 
that  this  terrible  outburst  of  hatred  and  contempt 


2i6    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

for  other  nations,  especially  England,  is  a  very 
sorry  product  of  the  new-German  spirit,  which 
doubtless  in  the  long  run — as  in  all  such  cases — 
will  hurt  no  one  so  much  as  the  German  people 
themselves.  The  eternally  reiterated  allegations 
that  the  English  people  are  sunk  in  hypocrisy  and 
falsehood  need  not,  I  think,  be  taken  at  all  serious- 
ly. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Germans  themselves 
will  one  day  have  the  grace  to  be  ashamed  of 
them. 

As  to  the  other  leading  characteristic  of  the 
new-German  spirit:  namely,  self-admiration,  not 
to  say  self-idolatry,  on  this  point  also  I  should 
like  to  sum  up  the  case.  That  this  tendency  of 
thought  is  very  widespread  has,  I  think,  been  in- 
controvertibly  proved;  and  that  it  is  a  very  dan- 
gerous one  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt.  This 
is  admitted,  to  some  extent,  by  sober-minded  Ger- 
mans themselves.  One  of  the  most  judicious 
German  utterances  I  have  seen  on  this  point,  oc- 
curs in  a  book  by  Professor  M.  Schian,  entitled 
Das  deutsche  Christentum  im  Kriege.  He  studies, 
step  by  step,  the  whole  phenomenon.  Let  me 
condense  as  follows  the  main  lines  of  his  study: 

The  cause  of  Germany  is  a  just  one.  There- 
fore God  is  with  us.  Therefore  Germany  must 
be  victorious.  The  judgment  of  God  shall  smite 
the  foes  of  Germany,  and  Germany  shall  be  the 
instrument  of  God  for  carrying  out  this  judgment. 
And  not  only  this:  The  German  people  hold  an 
indispensable  place  in  God's  scheme  for  the  gov- 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     217 


ernment  of  the  world:  nay,  they  are  in  reality  the 
pivot  of  it.  Therefore  the  German  nation  can- 
not be  crushed.  This  is  proved  to  be  so,  partly 
by  a  reference  to  their  two  thousand  years  of 
history,  and  partly  by  emphasising  the  great  bless- 
ings God  has  bestowed  upon  the  German  people. 
Germany  is  particularly  indispensable  for  the  fu- 
ture of  Protestantism.  Other  nations,  the  whole 
world,  are  therefore  in  need  of  the  German  people. 
They  have  a  world-mission  to  fulfil.  Therefore 
they  fight  for  God.  They  are  his  chosen  people. 
This  is  the  first  group  of  ideas  with  which  we 
have  to  deal.  Professor  Schian  has  great  mis- 
givings. He  realises  that  there  are  not  sufficient 
grounds  for  simply  setting  up  the  demand  that 
God  shall  and  must  let  Germany  triumph.  He 
fears  that  all  this  talk  of  Germany  as  God's 
chosen  people  will  lead  to  a  relapse  to  Old  Tes- 
tament ideas.  He  fears  there  is  a  danger  of 
national  self-aggrandisement,  of  an  arrogant  self- 
estimation.  One  writer  has  plainly  declared  that 
God  has  now  subjected  the  nations  of  the  earth 
to  an  examen  rigorosum;  the  other  nations  have 
all  been  ploughed,  and  Germany  alone  has  passed. 
Schian  does  not  venture  to  say  right  out  that  this 
view  is  false.  He  thinks  that  a  sober  investiga- 
tion will  lead  to  the  result  that  the  palm  of  victory 
must  be  awarded  the  German  people,  and  that 
they  must  take  the  top  place.  He  warns  the  Ger- 
mans— in  my  opinion  very  unnecessarily — against 
their  "fanatical  self-criticism."     He  agrees  with 


218     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

Deismann's  assertion,  that  the  Germans  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth.  He  is  quite  clear  that  "every 
one  ought  to  be  able  to  see  to  what  an  extent 
hypocrisy  and  the  spirit  of  trade  have  dominated 
the  English  people,  and  to  what  an  extent  pas- 
sionate infatuation  has  perverted  the  French  peo- 
ple in  the  direction  of  brutal  cruelty  and  cowardly 
self-deception."  Here,  this  otherwise  sober- 
minded  German  allows  himself  to  be  carried  away 
by  the  common  hatred.  I  confess  I  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  understand  why  that  which  is  stig- 
matised as  Mammon-worship  in  an  Englishman 
should  be  eulogised  in  a  German  under  the  name 
of  business  ability;  or  why,  when  the  English  make 
money,  it  is  a  case  of  shameless  blood-sucking  and 
a  very  wicked  proceeding,  but  when  the  Germans, 
as  they  boast,  make  a  great  deal  more  money,  it 
is  called  a  blessing  for  the  world  and  a  most  praise- 
worthy act.  This  is  the  more  surprising  when 
we  consider  that  the  possibility  of  Germany's  en- 
richment has  depended  partly  upon  that  principle 
of  free  trade  which  England,  and  not  Germany, 
has  so  far  maintained. 

Be  this  as  it  may.  There  are,  of  course,  limits 
to  Professor  Schian's  fairness  and  balance  of 
mind.  Germany's  perfect  innocence  and  abso- 
lute purity  of  conscience  are  for  him,  too,  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  He  now  and  then  lets  himself  be 
so  carried  away  as  to  use  passionate  words  of 
abuse,  and  cannot  deny  that  he,  too,  believes  in 
Germany's  superiority  and  world-mission;  yet  he 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     219 

holds  that  one  cannot  simply  prescribe  for  God 
how  He  must  act,  and  he  maintains,  at  all  events 
theoretically,  that  the  Germans  have  no  right  to 
feel  arrogant  contempt  for  other  nations.  This 
is  already  something! 

The  second  group  of  ideas  is  concerned  with 
the  demand  for  a  special  German  religion,  or  the 
assertion  that  Germany  possesses  a  particularly 
excellent  form  of  Christianity.  This  method  of 
thinking  culminates  in  the  description  of  God  as 
the  German  God.  There  is  an  inner  connection 
between  the  German  nature  and  Christianity,  there 
is  a  distinct  spiritual  relationship  between  God 
and  the  German  people. 

Professor  Schian  takes  distinct  exception  to  this 
way  of  speaking.  He  says  we  must  not  talk  as 
if  we  had  a  monopoly  of  God.  What  would  we 
Germans  say  if  the  English  spoke  about  an  "Eng- 
lish God" — which  he  is  just  enough  to  admit  that 
the  English  do  not  do.  This  admission  should 
be  specially  noted.  The  German  who  praises 
himself  for  his  humility  is  in  the  habit  of  charging 
the  English  with  the  most  intolerable  arrogance. 
It  is  not  the  English,  however,  but  the  Germans 
who,  by  their  own  admission,  monopolise  God  as 
the  God  of  their  people,  and  make  Him  "the  Ger- 
man God."  In  this  respect  the  Germans  stand 
quite  alone.  Of  that  honour — or  shame — no  one 
will  seek  to  deprive  them. 

I  have  said  that  I  consider  the  new-German 
tendency  of  thought  as  dangerous.    It  may  be  well 


220     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

to  give  my  reasons  for  this  view.  It  is  frequently 
said  that  this  naive  German  self-exaltation  may 
best  be  treated  with  an  indulgent  smile.1  This, 
in  my  opinion,  is  an  altogether  inadequate  way  of 
looking  at  the  matter.  It  is  forgotten  that  the 
once  so  simple-minded  and  idealistic  German  has, 
since  the  time  of  Bismarck,  become  unpleasantly 
practical  and  active.  The  thoughts  of  German 
grandeur  are  no  mere  childish  dreams,  but  they 
are  entirely  indispensable  to  the  German  as  a 
groundwork  for  his  conviction  of  the  absolute 
moral  justification  of  German  politics.  By  means 
of  this  way  of  reasoning,  the  Germans  have  cer- 
tainly, to  use  an  expression  of  Nietzsche,  "helped 
themselves"  in  advance  "to  a  good  conscience." 
It  is  therefore  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  German  people  in  this  war,  as  a  simple- 
minded  Norwegian  has  put  it,  "are  radiant  with 
the  sense  of  righteousness."  If  the  German  peo- 
ple are  the  centre  of  world-history,  the  meaning 
of  the  world  and  the  inmost  thought  of  God,  then 
any  opposition  to  German  demands  must  be  op- 
position to  the  will  of  God,  and  everything  Ger- 
many demands  or  does  must  be  just  and  good.  To 
doubt  this  would  be  presumptuous,  would  be 
blasphemous  unbelief,  and  to  fight  against  the 
German  will  would  be  an  offence  against  all  laws, 
human  and  divine.  When  this  habit  of  thought 
is  taken  seriously,  when  it  is  applied  in  practice, 

1  For     instance,     by     Professor    J.     L.     Heiberg    in 
Tilskueren,  January  191 6. 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     221 

it  becomes  a  terrible  danger — precisely  because 
Germany  is  so  great,  so  efficient,  so  powerful,  and 
because  it  is  imbued  with  such  gigantic  ambitions, 
such  dreams  of  greatness.  There  is  no  encroach- 
ment, nor  any  kind  of  coercion  and  violence  against 
non-German  nations,  which,  from  this  point  of 
view,  cannot  be  represented  to  a  German  in  such 
a  way  that  he  sees  it  to  be  an  absolute  necessity 
and  feels  perfectly  convinced  that  the  right  is  on 
his  side.  There  will  not  be  the  slightest  uneasi- 
ness in  his  mind,  he  will  be  quite  sincerely  con- 
vinced of  the  complete  human  and  divine  justi- 
fication of  his  cause,  and  his  face  will  shine  with 
absolute  purity  of  conscience. 

If  these  new-German  ideas  prevail — and  should 
Germany  be  victorious  I  take  it  as  a  certainty 
that  they  would  prevail,  for  a  decisive  victory  in 
this  war  would  give  them  the  best  possible  his- 
torical confirmation  in  all  their  main  points — the 
dangers  I  apprehend  will  instantly  become  im- 
minent. The  Germans  would  then  at  once  begin 
to  fulfil  their  mission  of  "filling  the  world  with 
God"  and  with  Germanism.  The  danger  would 
of  course  be  greatest  for  the  nations  nearest  Ger- 
many. And  it  would  be  so  much  the  more  men- 
acing as  these  thoughts  are  necessarily  bound  up 
with  another  new-German  idea,  upon  which  I  have 
not  yet  touched  in  this  book,  but  which  must  here 
be  mentioned,  namely  the  new-German  idea  of  the 
State. 

It  is  quite  astonishing  to  observe  the  importance 


222     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

the  idea  of  the  State  has  attained  in  modern  Ger- 
many. The  State  is  the  great  factor  of  power  by 
aid  of  which  political  demands  are  to  be  realised. 
From  the  State  there  is  no  appeal  to  any  higher 
authority,  so  that  it  is  useless  to  fall  back  upon 
moral  principles  applicable  to  the  mutual  relations 
between  individuals.  Here  everything  begins  and 
ends  in  Power.  The  nation  which  has  a  Kultur- 
mission  can  execute  it  only  through  the  medium  of 
a  powerful  State-organisation,  which  in  its  turn 
implies  a  strong  army  and  fleet.  It  is  especially 
in  this  connection  that  Treitschke's  influence  has 
made  itself  felt.  And  with  the  new-German  idea 
of  the  State,  two  other  entirely  new  notions  go 
hand  in  hand,  which  are  of  far-reaching  effect,  and 
are  for  us  Danes,  for  instance,  of  the  most  de- 
cisive importance.  One  of  these  notions  is  that 
an  entirely  new  relation  must  be  established  be- 
tween the  idea  of  the  State  and  the  idea  of  nation- 
ality. Formerly  the  national  demand  for  the 
freedom  and  independence  of  a  people  was  held 
to  be  the  highest  possible.  Now  we  hear  one 
German  voice  after  the  other  maintaining  that  this 
relation  must  be  entirely  reversed.  The  idea  of 
nationality  is  now  played  out;  it  must  make  way 
for  the  idea  of  the  State.  The  Austro-Hungarian 
State-idea  is  much  more  important  than  the  dif- 
ferent national  claims  within  this  empire  of  many 
nationalities;  and  as  for  the  national  demands  of 
the  population  of  North  Slesvig,  they  must,  it  is 
now  maintained,  entirely  make  way  for  the  Ger- 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     223 

man  State-idea.  The  German  State-structure, 
within  which  both  the  bureaucratic  and  the  mil- 
itary organisation  have  been  developed  to  the 
highest  degree  of  perfection,  and  which  has  the 
sole  and  stupendous  mission  of  providing  the  basis 
of  Power  on  which  German  Kultur  must  rest — this 
German  State-structure  is  the  most  important  thing 
in  the  world,  and  anything  so  insignificant  in  com- 
parison as  the  national  demands  of  a  small  an- 
nexed people  cannot  for  a  moment  be  taken  into 
account. 

The  second  notion  which,  in  connection  with  the 
emphasis  laid  upon  the  State-idea,  is  ever  gaining 
more  ground,  is  that,  from  this  new  point  of  view, 
there  is  simply  no  meaning  in  the  existence  of  the 
small  States.  The  State  must  be  a  factor  of  Power, 
and  that  the  small  States  can  never  be.  The  great 
Kultur-thoughts  cannot  by  any  means  thrive  in 
small  communities,  where  large  horizons  and  a 
world-wide  outlook  are  impossible,  and  where  life 
must  of  necessity  be  narrow  and  stagnant.  If  a 
small  State  stands  in  the  way  of  a  great  State's 
desire  for  extension,  if  it  becomes  an  obstacle  to 
the  accomplishment  of  its  world-embracing  Kul- 
tur-mission,  then  this  obstacle  must  be  removed 
and  the  small  State  devoured  by  the  great.  This 
is  the  law  of  life,  against  which  it  is  useless  to 
appeal  to  any  supposed  right.  The  weak  must 
make  room  for  the  strong:  this  is  the  inevitable 
course  of  things  as  ordained  by  the  laws  of  life, 
and  it  is  best  for  the  small  nations  themselves  to 


224     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

be  delivered  from  their  stagnating  and  decaying 
existence  by  being  absorbed  into  a  great  State- 
structure. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  giving  chapter  and  verse 
for  these  thoughts  in  German  literature.  Thus 
Bernhardi  speaks  of  "the  miserable  life  of  all 
small  States" : 

"To  allow  to  the  weak  the  same  right  of  ex- 
istence as  to  the  strong  vigorous  nation,  means 
presumptuous  encroachment  upon  the  natural  laws 
of  development." 

And  Treitschke : 

"The  small  nations  have  no  right  of  existence, 
and  ought  to  be  swallowed  up." 

Not  to  speak  of  Lasson: 

"It  is  moral,  inasmuch  as  it  is  reasonable,  that 
the  small  States,  in  spite  of  treaties,  should  be- 
come the  prey  of  the  strongest." 

In  this  connection  I  will  quote  yet  another  docu- 
ment which  in  my  opinion  is  exceedingly  instruc- 
tive. It  is  an  utterance  by  one  of  the  most  re- 
spected of  German  politicians,  the  ex-pastor  F. 
Naumann.  His  reasoning  is  exceedingly  discom- 
forting for  the  small  nations,  but  is  at  the  same 
time  a  brilliant  example  of  the  way  in  which  a 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION     225 

perfectly  honest  and  honourable  German  is  able 
to  place  German  aggression  in  such  a  light  that 
it  appears  to  him  as  an  expression  of  a  deeper 
right,  nay  of  a  positive  duty,  so  that  no  spot  can 
rest  on  the  German  conscience.    He  says : 

"But  supposing  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  really 
was  honestly  meant,  the  question  remains  whether 
a  small  individual  State  has  in  every  possible  case 
the  right  to  evade  a  world-historic  new-formation. 
That  is  the  vital  point  at  issue.  War,  it  should  be 
remembered,  is  no  longer  a  feud  one  undertakes 
because  one  has  nothing  else  to  do;  it  is  a  shifting 
of  organisation  in  the  development  of  humanity. 
By  it  are  determined  the  respective  parts  in  the 
future  government  of  mankind  for  a  generation 
or  perhaps  even  longer.  That  this  should  be 
effected  by  war  is  hard  and  barbarous,  but  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  offers  no  other  method.  As  there 
are  rising  and  falling  States  and  nations,  so  there 
must  also  be  settling-days  in  which  the  degrees  of 
participation  in  the  coming  central  management  of 
mankind  {Menschheitzentralverwaltang)  are  re- 
arranged. One  of  these  settling  days  has  now 
arrived.  However  friendly-disposed  one  may  be, 
from  a  purely  human  standpoint,  to  the  wishes 
of  the  neutrals,  one  cannot  as  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple concede  to  them  any  right  to  exempt  them- 
selves from  this  general  process,  by  which  a  new 
centralisation  in  the  leadership  of  mankind  is 
effected.  In  the  social  struggle  we  constantly  see 
that  small  concerns  prefer  to  remain  outside  the 
trade-union  movement.  They  often  succeed,  but 
often  they  do  not.    The  principle  of  concentration 


226     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

is  victorious.     The  same  applies  to  the  domain 
of  international  politics." 

It  must  be  admitted,  that  the  State  of  Denmark 
is  one  of  the  "small  concerns"  whose  fate  thus 
seems  to  be  sealed.  I  have  not  the  slightest  in- 
tention of  embarking  upon  an  idle  discussion  as 
to  whether  or  not  this  development  rests  upon  a 
law  of  nature  and  is  in  consequence  inevitable.  I 
only  maintain,  what  is  a  matter  of  course,  that  if 
a  small  State  ceases  to  exist  and  is  swallowed  up 
by  a  great,  then  its  characteristic  Kultur  is  at  an 
end.  Without  the  liberty  implied  in  national  in- 
dependence (or  if  the  nation  is  suppressed,  with- 
out the  demand  and  struggle  for  this  liberty)  its 
individual  life  will  vanish,  and  its  special  contri- 
bution to  the  Kultur  of  the  world  become  impos- 
sible. If  the  small  absorbed  nation  is  to  be  "or- 
ganised" according  to  the  will  of  the  great  State, 
and  is  to  serve  its  interests,  then  the  necessary 
foundation  for  all  independent  Kultur,  a  con- 
sciousness of  freedom  to  order  one's  life  accord- 
ing to  the  demands  of  one's  own  nature,  will  have 
disappeared.  If  the  small  nation  does  not  resist 
this  to  the  utmost,  its  doom  is  sealed,  and  the 
world  has  become  a  national  Kultur  the  poorer. 

I  do  not  know  if  this  will  meet  the  eye  of  any 
German.  It  is  said  that  the  German  State-brain 
is  so  very  subtly  organised  that  it  collects  and 
co-ordinates  everything.  If  that  be  so,  I  should 
rather  like  to  ask:   Can  any  German  expect  that  a 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    227 

Dane  who  knows  the  trend  of  these  new-German 
thoughts,  and  these  views  as  to  the  position  of  the 
small  nations,  should  have  any  sympathy  for  Ger- 
many? Must  not  a  German,  if  he  wishes  to  be 
what  the  English  call  "fair,"  admit  that  if  these 
thoughts  should  become  a  ruling  principle  in  the 
future  development  of  Germany,  it  would  be  rather 
too  much  to  look  for  an  enthusiastic  response  from 
the  small  neighbouring  States?  Two  replies  are 
possible :  Either  he  shares  these  new-German 
ideas,  in  which  case  he  must  say:  "Well,  I  am 
sorry  for  the  small,  weak  nations,  but  there  is  no 
help  for  it;  they  must  join  in  the  game,  and  their 
little  interests  must  give  way  to  our  great  ones. 
But,  that  being  so,  I  will  at  least  not  lower  myself 
by  begging  for  their  sympathy  in  the  present 
struggle,  and  I  will  not  be  so  foolish  and  so  in- 
consistent as  to  be  angry  if  I  cannot  obtain  it." 
Or  he  does  not  share  the  new-German  ideas,  and 
in  that  case  he  must  admit  that,  so  long  as  this  new- 
German  spirit  speaks  with  so  loud  a  voice,  it  is 
at  least  comprehensible  that  the  small  nations 
should  find  some  difficulty  in  believing  that  a  Ger- 
man victory  would  be  a  blessing  for  them.  It  will 
be  clear  to  him  that  one  may  justly  shrink  from 
the  idea  of  being  "healed"  by  this  "German 
nature."  He  will  then,  if  he  is  consistent,  turn 
with  all  his  strength  against  this  new-German 
spirit,  and  fight  against  it  as  the  most  dangerous 
source  of  corruption  for  Germany  herself.     But 


228     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

of  the  latter  class  of  Germans  it  seems  that  there 
are,  for  the  present,  extremely  few. 

It  is  often  said  that  neutrality  demands  that 
one  should  express  neither  sympathy  nor  antip- 
athy. This  is  an  entirely  unreasonable  demand, 
which  would  always  be  to  the  advantage  of  the 
one  who  is  in  the  wrong.  I  contend,  moreover, 
that  in  reality  I  show  greater  respect  for  the  Ger- 
man character  by  making  a  clean  breast  of  my 
criticisms,  and  in  some  instances  my  indignation, 
than  do  those  who  consider  that  the  Germans 
cannot  stand  hearing  an  exposition  of  facts,  even 
if  it  tends  to  their  disadvantage.  Moreover,  as 
the  Germans  have,  by  their  violent  propaganda, 
courted  our  sympathy,  it  is  only  reasonable  that 
they  should  receive  an  answer  to  their  questions. 

It  is  hardly  necessary,  but  in  order  not  to  be 
misunderstood  I  must  in  conclusion  say  this — my 
heart  bleeds  quite  as  much  at  the  thought  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  German  soldiers  and  of  the 
German  homes,  as  it  does  at  the  thought  of  what 
the  other  nations  have  to  suffer.  This  is  all  the 
more  true  as  in  many  a  German  trench  men  are 
to  be  found  who,  from  a  national  point  of  view, 
are  of  the  same  blood  and  race  as  I,  and  who  speak 
Rheims  meant  for  France !  Why  does  not  Ger- 
mans are  fighting  for  their  country  is  as  much  a 
matter  of  course  as  that  the  others  are  fighting 
for  theirs.  All  the  talk  about  it  being  the  enemy's 
intention  to  "annihilate  Germany,"  to  "destroy 
German  Kultur,"  and  to  "rob  her  of  the  Gospel," 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    229 

etc.,  is  to  my  thinking  negligible.  I  am  fully  con- 
vinced that  it  is  a  mere  figment  of  overwrought 
imaginations,  nor  is  there  the  slightest  prospect 
of  such  a  thing  happening.  The  Kultur  and  re- 
ligion of  Germany  cannot  be  destroyed,  and  Ger- 
many herself  will  remain.  All  I  wish  and  pray 
for  is  a  peace  with  justice.  But  an  unjust  peace 
— and  as  such  I  consider  a  peace  which  would 
promote  the  ideas  of  the  new-German  spirit — 
would  be  a  curse  for  the  world.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that! 

The  Germans  are  very  angry  because  the 
French  call  them  "Huns  and  Barbarians."  But 
they  ought  to  look  at  this  from  a  larger  point  of 
view.  By  way  of  experiment,  let  the  Germans 
imagine  that  the  French  had  invaded  Germany  and 
laid  Cologne  Cathedral  in  ruins;  would  not  the 
whole  of  Germany  have  raised  one  giant  shriek 
against  the  French  barbarians?  Yet  the  signif- 
icance of  Cologne  Cathedral  to  Germany  can  in 
no  way  be  compared  with  what  the  Cathedral  of 
Rheims  meant  for  France !  Why  does  not  Ger- 
many take  this  in  a  spirit  of  calm  superiority,  as 
England  has  taken  Germany's  hatred  and  abuse? 
In  support  of  my  statement  I  will  in  conclusion 
quote  a  passage  from  one  of  the  excellent  English 
war  pamphlets:  Papers  for  the  War:  x 

"Whilst  rejoicing  that  at  the  darkest  hour 
Britain  followed  the  path  of  honour  and  realised 

1  E.  McDougall :  Germany  and  the  Germans. 


230     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

that  there  are  things  more  precious  than  peace, 
we  can  all  prepare  for  a  happier  future  by  trying 
even  now  to  look  with  sympathy  on  Germany. 
.  .  .  And  in  our  case  sympathy  with  Germany's 
ideals  and  aims  would  be  less  difficult  if  we  would 
take  pains  to  realise  how  many  noble  and  good 
qualities  combine  to  make  a  German  feel  that  it 
is  'a  sweet  and  honourable  thing  to  die  for  his 
country.'  .  .  .  And  if  we  look  away  from  the  war, 
and  remember  Germany  as  we  knew  it  before  last 
summer,  how  much  room  there  is  for  the  sympathy, 
admiration  and  gratitude  which  are  the  springs 
of  international  goodwill. 

"On  our  debt  to  Germany  it  is  superfluous  to  ex- 
patiate. In  music,  philosophy  and  scholarship 
the  modern  world  owes  more  to  Germany  than 
to  all  the  rest  of  Europe  put  together,  not  to  speak 
of  the  pleasure  of  visiting  that  beautiful  land,  or 
unnumbered  personal  kindnesses  from  those  with 
whom  we  are  now  at  war.  So  that  if  sympathy, 
pity,  gratitude,  and  kinship  are  the  sources  of 
love,  it  should  not  be  too  hard  for  us  even  in  the 
dust  and  heat  of  conflict  to  refrain  from  bitterness 
or  vindictiveness,  and  to  answer  fury  with  patience. 
The  wild  outbursts  of  passionate  hatred  of  which 
we  read  in  German  poems  and  speeches  need  find 
no  echo  in  Britain.  They  are  the  cry  of  men 
bitterly  disappointed  and  cruelly  disillusioned 
rather  than  an  expression  of  permanent  feeling, 
but  we  should  have  no  excuse  if  we  replied  in 
similar  language.   .    .    . 

"The  moral  necessity  which  dragged  Britain 
into  the  war  must  keep  her  there  till  the  end  is 
gained.     To  make  a  premature  peace  on  an  un- 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    231 

stable  foundation  would  only  transfer  the  suffering 
of  our  time  from  our  own  to  the  coming  genera- 
tion, a  responsibility  from  which  we  may  well 
shrink.  But  in  kindness  to  the  alien  enemies 
within  our  gates,  in  sincere  intercession  for  our 
estranged  kindred,  in  avoidance  of  harsh  judg- 
ments, in  gentle  thoughts  and  words,  a  channel 
may  be  found  for  the  love  which,  to  those  who  call 
themselves  Christians,  is  the  'fufilling  of  the 
law.'  " 

If  the  Germans  had  spoken  of  their  enemies 
with  similar  magnanimity  they  would  unquestion- 
ably have  gained  by  doing  so.  Then  we  others 
would  also  have  been  able  to  show  them  more  of 
that  sympathy  which  they  so  fervently  desire  and 
evidently  miss  so  bitterly. 

Next  year,  191 7,  is  the  400th  anniversary  of 
the  Reformation.  It  began  in  Germany  with 
Martin  Luther.  In  time  it  reached  Denmark, 
and  we  Danes  have  lived  our  life  under  the  in- 
fluence of  this  great  event. 

Let  us  hope  that  peace  will  be  restored  before 
the  anniversary  comes  round.  Should  Germany 
have  gained  the  victory,  it  is  not  difficult  to  imag- 
ine how  the  festival  of  the  Reformation  will  be 
celebrated  in  its  mother  country.  There  will  be 
jubilant  thanksgiving  to  the  God  who  has  again 
acknowledged  Germany  as  His  special  holy-land, 
and  has  given  His  approval  to  the  German  na- 
tion, which,  after  its  Gethsemane  and  Golgotha 
agonies,  has  reached  its  glorious  Easter  Day,  and 


232    HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

now  stands  ready  to  bless  the  whole  world  with 
the  German  nature.  In  this  intoxication  of  tri- 
umph all  sober  voices  will  be  drowned.  How  the 
festival  is  to  be  celebrated,  should  things  not  go 
as  the  Germans  hope,  I  am  unable  to  picture  to 
myself. 

In  Denmark,  too,  this  festival  will  be  cele- 
brated. We  Danes  will  gladly  express  our  thanks 
for  the  good  which  has  come  to  us  from  Germany, 
even  if  many  amongst  us  may  think  that  this  im- 
port of  Germanism  has  been  a  little  too  profuse 
and  too  one-sided,  and  in  many  respects  has 
proved  a  costly  gift  for  us — may  hold  that  we 
have  come  too  long  and  too  thoroughly  under  the 
influence  of  Germanism.  We  must  make  it  clear 
to  ourselves  that  we  neither  can  nor  will  keep  this 
festival  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  an  act  of 
homage  to  this  "German  nature."  The  German 
Lutheran  Church  has  too  long  affected  the  position 
of  being  the  "Mother  Church,"  which  looks  upon 
all  other  Lutheran  communities  as  her  "daugh- 
ters," whose  well-being  and  progress  must  always 
depend  upon  their  willingly  and  obediently  trip- 
ping at  the  heels  of  their  German  mother.  That 
time,  however,  has  passed  long  ago.  During  the 
bygone  hundred  years,  since  the  last  Reformation 
festival,  the  Christian  Church  in  Denmark  (no 
less  than  that  of  Norway  and  of  Sweden)  has 
developed  its  independent  life,  and  will  no  longer 
accept  a  position  of  dependency  upon  the  Church 
of  any  other  nation.     The  manner  in  which  we 


REFLECTIONS  IN  CONCLUSION    233 

solemnise  this  festival  must  signify  a  decided  as- 
sertion of  our  Christian  independence,  a  marked 
protest  against  that  caricature  of  Christianity 
which  would  make  it  a  special  German  concern, 
so  that  our  religion  must  be  Germanised  before 
it  can  bestow  upon  other  races  the  full  blessing 
and  healing  of  which  an  ailing  world  stands  in 
need.  The  German  Lutheran  Church  must  realise 
that  in  many  ways  it  is  behind-hand,  and  that  it, 
too,  has  much  to  learn  from  others;  it  must 
realise  that  Lutheranism  is  not  a  German  speci- 
ality— all  the  less  so  as  half  the  German  people, 
who  are  Roman  Catholics,  denounce  Lutheranism 
as  a  pestilence.  Especially  mus't  German  Luther- 
anism do  penance  for  the  dreadful  contamination 
and  distortion  of  Christianity  which  I  have  de- 
scribed in  these  pages,  if  there  is  not  to  be  a  deep 
gulf  fixed  between  it  and  all  other  Churches.  We 
in  Denmark  will  no  longer  live  our  Christian  life 
in  the  shadow  of  Germanism — nor  is  this  a  new 
determination.  We  will,  to  use  a  German  phrase, 
have  our  own  place  in  the  sun,  in  the  sun  of  God's 
grace  which  shines  with  the  same  power  and  glory 
over  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  and  is  equally 
near  to  them  all.  We  will  gratefully  rejoice  in 
and  accept,  so  far  as  it  is  adapted  to  our  needs,  all 
the  rich  and  manifold  life  which  this  sun  calls  forth 
amongst  all  nations;  but  we  will  reject  as  unchrist- 
ian arrogance  the  assertion  by  any  individual  peo- 
ple of  the  right  or  duty  of  forcing  their  nature 
and  their  Christianity  upon  others,  as  being  the 


234     HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH 

best  for  them.  If,  after  this  terrible  war,  in  which 
the  different  Christian  nations  have  fallen  upon 
and  slaughtered  each  other,  the  festival  of  the 
Reformation  is  to  be  solemnised  in  the  right  spirit, 
it  must  be  by  first  asserting  and  safeguarding  in 
the  conditions  of  peace  the  equal  right  of  all  peo- 
ples to  live  in  full  and  unmolested  freedom,  both 
in  regard  to  nationality  and  to  all  forms  of  spirit- 
ual life.  Only  by  acknowledging  and  aiming  at 
this  goal  can  the  terrible  hatred  between  the  na- 
tions be  subdued,  and  may  perhaps  one  day  vanish. 


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